Ottawa regained the lead, 2-1, with 5:52 left in the first and maintained that lead after Batherson swatted a rebound of Dylan Cozens’ shot past Tarasov from the slot for his 21 st goal.

In 2022-23, when the Sabres missed the playoffs by a point, Tage Thompson had 47 goals, Alex Tuch had 36, Skinner 35, Dylan Cozens 31 and Victor Olofsson 28. All those numbers dropped last season.