The Buffalo Sabres wrap up the regular season Wednesday at the Dallas Stars, and for the first time since the 2010-11 season, the regular-season finale will not be Buffalo’s last game.
Coach Lindy Ruff’s team has been one of the NHL’s hottest over the past four months, winning 39 out of 52 games since Dec. 8. Thanks to that torrid stretch, the Sabres (50-23-8, 108 points) clinched the Atlantic Division title Monday with a 5-1 road win against the Chicago Blackhawks.
“This last four months has been so much fun coaching this group,” Ruff told reporters Monday. “You hope to get the team in the right place and become consistent, but these guys have exceeded my expectations.”
Tage Thompson scored two goals in Chicago to reach 40 goals for the third time in his career. With his 41 assists, the center leads Buffalo with 81 points. That total is Thompson’s highest since getting 94 points in the 2022-23 season.
Rasmus Dahlin had two assists in the win, giving the 26-year-old Swedish defenseman a career-high 74 points. With 19 goals, the eight-year veteran is one away from his second 20-goal season.
The Stars (49-20-12, 110 points) have also punched their ticket to the postseason and are on a four-game winning streak. A victory in their final regular-season game would give them 50 wins for a third straight season.
On Monday, Dallas rallied from a 5-3 hole with less than 16 minutes remaining to pull out a 6-5 victory at Toronto. Mavrik Bourque recorded the first hat trick and four-point game of his career and scored the game-winner with 5:08 left in regulation.
Bourque, 24, has 40 points in his second full NHL season and, according to coach Glen Gulutzan, the forward has been playing his best hockey over the past month.
“He’s embodied kind of what we wanted to do here,” Gulutzan said after the win over the Maple Leafs. “He’s been very physical. He’s been very responsible, two ways. A guy that you can trust, and I think his game has grown a lot from the start of the year.”
Jason Robertson leads the team with 96 points, which ranks 10th in the league. He and Wyatt Johnston share the team lead with 45 goals, and both are tied with Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov for fourth in the league’s goal-scoring race.
Dallas has been one of the league’s better teams all season, overcoming numerous injuries to key players along the way. The Stars are currently without defenseman Miro Heiskanen, who ranks second on the team with 54 assists, and forward Roope Hintz, whose 44 points are sixth-best.
Both are recovering from lower-body injuries and are questionable to return for the start of Dallas’ first-round series against Minnesota. In addition, Sam Steel, who has 12 goals and 21 assists in 72 games, is listed as questionable for Wednesday’s game with a hip issue.
Wednesday’s matchup features the league’s third- and fourth-best teams by record. It will also pit Dallas’ power play, which leads the league with 70 goals, against the Sabres, who rank fourth in killing penalties at 82.1% (41 allowed on 229 times short-handed).
