Red Wings goalie Cossa wins NHL debut in shootout vs. Sabres

Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News on Dec 9, 2024

Published in Hockey

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BUFFALO, N.Y.— Somehow, a little incredibly, the Detroit Red Wings earned a much-needed victory Monday, a 6-5 shootout victory against the Buffalo Sabres, to turn around what was looking like a grim, ugly evening.

Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymmond scored in the shootout against former teammate James Reimer.

Goaltender Sebastian Cossa relieved Ville Husso to begin the second period and earned the victory, stopping 2 of 3 shooters in the shootout and making 12 saves in regulation on 14 shots.

The victory ended a five-game Wings' (11-13-4) winless streak.

Andrew Copp and Moritz Seider scored late third-period goals to tie the game and rally the Wings from a 5-3 third period deficit.

Buffalo (11-13-4) saw its losing streak reach seven games.

Copp scored his second goal of the game, and sixth of the season, at 10:27, cutting the Buffalo lead to 5-4. Seider then tied it at 15:42 with a drive from the point past the beleaguered Reimer.

The Wings killed a Buffalo power play, after a Seider tripping penalty, at 17:41 of the third period to preserve at least one point in the standings.

Husso started his fourth consecutive game but whether it was the workload, or the Sabres' shooters, Husso wasn't sharp. Husso allowed four goals on seven shots before being replaced by Cossa to begin the second period.

Alex DeBrincat and Copp scored goals 41 seconds apart in first period, giving the Wings a 2-1 lead. Raymond scored his 11th goal, and ninth in 10 games, briefly tying the game 3-3 early in the second period.

Jason Zucker had two goals, and Zach Benson, Tage Thompson, Nicolas Aube-Kubel had the Sabres' goals. Reimer stopped 26 of 31 shots.

Husso had a rough first period, but goaltender didn't have the best luck.

Benson opened the scoring at 1:38 of the first period, lifting a long-range shot that appeared to roll up the stick of Ben Chiarot and flew past Husso for Benson's fourth goal.

After the goals from DeBrincat and Copp (Copp's sixth goal ended a personal 15-game drought) gave the Wings a 2-1 lead, Thompson tied it for Buffalo with his 15th goal, converting a drop pass from Zucker, while skating free down the slot.

Buffalo took the lead, 3-2, as Zucker snuck a low drive along the ice through Husso, who was screened by 6-foot-6 Jordan Greenway.

That was enough, though, for coach Derek Lalonde who replaced Husso with Cossa, making his NHL debut. Cossa let a rebound squirt to Aube-Kubel at the side of the net, giving the Sabres a 4-3 lead just 1:21 after Raymond had tied the game off a rush.

Zucker made it 5-3, driving to the net and slipping a backhander past Cossa.

Lalonde, after Monday's morning skate, addressed the desperation level of both teams heading into the game.

"You'd think," Lalonde said. "Watching them (the Sabres), they're doing a lot of good things too. It's a little bit different, they are scoring goals and obviously they're a very good offensive team. Both teams are desperate to try and get some points."

Lalonde feels it's crucial for the Wings to "stay with it" during a losing streak where the Wings have played winning-caliber hockey in stretches, but just not enough.

"It's been frustrating," Lalonde said. "I keep using that word, but it's been a similar message. We did a lot of good things (against Colorado), you out-chance a team like that two-to-one, every analytic number feels like it should have been a 4-0, or 4-1 win, but it wasn't

"We're finding ways to lose. We have to flip some of these and stick with it.

"Our margin for error isn't great. There's a lot of things, as well as we played the other night, we had a 10 or 12 minute stretch where we couldn't get that goal back It's a little bit of everything. We're trying to put together for 60 minutes."

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