I have no idea who was the last team to win three consecutive come-from-behind games in overtime or when it occurred, and perhaps Elias Sports Bureau can come up with that one, but rest assured, it doesn't happen that often.
The Buffalo Sabres just did that and for posterity's sake, here's how it went for them.
After losing a tough one in Toronto, while making it three losses in four games for the Sabres, Buffalo trailed the Detroit Red Wings by one goal with less than five minutes to play before Ryan O'Reilly tied the score at 2-2 with an incredible individual effort. Here's Buffalo's Rich Jeanneret with the call via sabres.com:
The Sabres would go on to beat the Wings in overtime when O'Reilly fed Kyle Okposo for a wheeling backhander in the crease for the winner. It was a much needed win for a rather desperate team as the both the division and conference were beginning to slip away.
Buffalo then had the unenviable task of heading to the Bell Centre in Montreal the following night to take on Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens. Price was his usual stout self in goal but at the other end Buffalo's Robin Lehner was equally as stout.
The Sabres came back from one-goal deficits twice in that game with defenseman Cody Franson's seeing-eye shot going through a maze of players tying the score at 2-2. An astounding save by Price with 6.3 seconds left in the third period kept the Sabres from winning it in regulation and an even better save by Lehner (both of which can be seen by clicking here) kept the Habs from winning in overtime.
Nineteen seconds after Lehner robbed Alex Galchenyuk in overtime, O'Reilly set up defenseman Zach Bogosian who pinged a blast in off the post past Price for the game-winner (via sabres.com):
Lehner was the star of the show (despite those of whom judged him as third star of the game) as he kept the Sabres within one goal with a series of pad saves in the second period and early in the third until Franson was able to tie it with less than 10 minutes left in regulation. The save-of-the-year candidate that made the highlight reel was the cherry on top off a brilliant 36-save performance.
After shaking off the euphoria of that win in Montreal and coming to our collective senses, the remaining question was, "What will they do for an encore?"
Come from behind and win in overtime, of course.
This time, however, they needed to come from two goals down in the third period. Zemgus Girgensons tied the score at 1-1 in the first and a late second period goal by Jack Eichel tied it at 2-2. Nashville scored two to take a 4-2 lead with just under 10 minutes to play but captain Brian Gionta cut it to one on a set-up from Girgensons. Okposo was the beneficiary of some strong work by Sam Reinhart and tied the game with 1:05 remaining and Lehner pulled for the extra attacker.
Then in overtime, "Jack Flash" hit the afterburners and unleashed this unstoppable wrist-shot for the game-winner (via sabres.com):
The cool part about these three games, other than winning three in a row in overtime after falling behind and collecting six points in the standings, is that Lehner and his skaters bailed each other out. Against Montreal, Lehner played superb and did what he had to do until his skaters were able to score. Last night in Nashville his skaters bailed him out. Lehner wasn't a sieve by any stretch of the imagination, but it didn't matter as his skaters did what they were supposed to do--score one more goal than the opposition.
It was the second time this year that Buffalo won a game when their goaltenders gave up four goals and both times came with Eichel in the lineup. The first was back on November 29 with Eichel making his season debut after missing 21 games because of a high-ankle sprain. He scored a goal in that one as well, as did Okposo and O'Reilly, who had two. Lehner started that game, allowed a goal, and left because of hip problems. Anders Nilsson entered in relief and was on the winning end of a 5-4 score.
Not only is it a good sign that Buffalo can come back and win games, but to be able to do so in a back-to-back situation as well as winning two different ways says a lot about this team. They're an imperfect lot at this juncture--for a variety of reasons--but they're starting overcome the difficulties they had in the first half of the season and might very well be turning the corner.
Too often we're expecting perfection from teams and/or individual players but rarely does it happen like that. Overcoming imperfections is more the norm and is the mark of a good team. I don't know when the last team engineered three consecutive come-from-behind wins in overtime, nor to I have the wherewithal to find out, but I'd hazard to guess that it was a pretty good team that did it.
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