Game

Flyers at Sabres

Sabres 5, Flyers 3 · first star Zach Benson (0 G, 2 A).

2025-26 regular season · Preseason. The 2026-27 regular season starts Sep 29. Data as of September 28, 2026, source NHL.

Philadelphia Flyers 3 at Buffalo Sabres 5

Flyers PHI

3 FINAL 5

Sabres BUF

Thursday, December 18, 2025 · 7:30 PM ET · KeyBank Center, Buffalo · TV ESPN+ · HULU

Line score by period
Team	1	2	3	T	SOG
Flyers	1	1	1	3	27
Sabres	1	2	2	5	28

Shot chart

Every shot attempt, computed from the league's play-by-play coordinates. Flyers attack left, Sabres attack right, all periods folded onto one rink. Attempts are plotted where the league recorded them, so the 3 marks in a team's own end are attempts logged from there: empty-net shots, long dumps on the net; 1 empty-net goal is drawn as a diamond. Boxscore shots on goal: PHI 27, BUF 28.

PHI in red BUF in blue goal empty-net goal shot on goal missed blocked Flyers 27 shots on goal (3 goals, 13 missed, 17 blocked) attacking left; Sabres 28 shots on goal (5 goals, 15 missed, 11 blocked) attacking right.

Shots by period

Shots on goal, goals and attempts by period
Period	PHI SOG	PHI G	PHI ATT	BUF SOG	BUF G	BUF ATT
1st	12	1	26	4	1	6
2nd	10	1	17	12	2	26
3rd	5	1	14	12	2	22
Total	27	3	57	28	5	54

Shots by situation

Shots on goal and goals by strength of the shooting team
Situation	PHI SOG	PHI G	BUF SOG	BUF G
Even strength	22	3	21	4
Power play	4	0	6	1
Short-handed	1	0	1	0
Into an empty net	0	0	1	1

Attempt share by period

Flyers took 51.4% of the shot attempts, and 53.7% of the 82 attempts taken at 5-on-5. An attempt is a goal, a shot on goal, a miss or a blocked shot; CF% is the share of them belonging to the Sabres and FF% their share of the ones that were not blocked, so the Flyers hold the remainder. All situations unless the 5-on-5 figure is named. All 32 teams

Attempt share by period, all situations, Flyers at Sabres
Period	BUF CF%	BUF FF%
1st	18.8	18.2
2nd	60.5	57.9
3rd	61.1	73.9
Game	48.6	51.8

Team totals only: per-player on-ice numbers need shift data, which this source does not publish.

Scoring summary

1st period

07:40 Jack Quinn (7) Mattias Samuelsson (8), Zach Benson (12) · tip-in 0–1
08:38 Noah Cates (8) Bobby Brink (7) · snap 1–1

2nd period

11:01 Cam York (2) Trevor Zegras (20), Bobby Brink (8) · wrist 2–1
16:54 Tage Thompson (17) Rasmus Dahlin (23) · wrist 2–2
19:30 Noah Ostlund (5) Owen Power (6), Alex Tuch (18) · wrist 2–3

3rd period

10:20 Josh Norris (3) PP Zach Benson (13) · wrist 2–4
14:28 Travis Konecny (10) Emil Andrae (8), Jamie Drysdale (12) · wrist 3–4
19:52 Ryan McLeod (6) EN Mattias Samuelsson (9) · wrist 3–5

Three stars

Zach Benson BUF · L #6 · 0 G, 2 A
Tage Thompson BUF · C #72 · 1 G, 0 A
Alex Lyon BUF · G #34 · 0 GA, .889 SV%

Penalties

Penalties
Period	Time	Team	Player	Infraction	Min	Drawn by
1st	00:18	BUF	Rasmus Dahlin	hooking	2	Christian Dvorak
1st	19:23	PHI	Travis Konecny	hooking	2	Bowen Byram
2nd	04:52	BUF	Alex Tuch	tripping	2	Emil Andrae
2nd	07:42	PHI	Rasmus Ristolainen	cross checking	2	Peyton Krebs
2nd	11:18	PHI	Matvei Michkov	interference goalkeeper	2	Alex Lyon
3rd	10:02	PHI	Bobby Brink	high sticking	2	Michael Kesselring
3rd	15:19	PHI	Trevor Zegras	hooking	2	Ryan McLeod
3rd	17:41	BUF	Mattias Samuelsson	delaying game puck over glass	2	—

Boxscore

Philadelphia Flyers

Flyers skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Bobby Brink #10	R	0	2	2	+2	1	1	1	2	0.0	14:38
Noah Cates #27	L	1	0	1	+1	2	1	0	0	36.4	15:37
Travis Konecny #11	R	1	0	1	-1	4	2	0	2	0.0	19:06
Cam York #8	D	1	0	1	-1	2	0	0	0	0.0	20:31
Trevor Zegras #46	C	0	1	1	-1	1	0	0	2	50.0	20:32
Emil Andrae #36	D	0	1	1	+1	0	2	0	0	0.0	17:15
Jamie Drysdale #9	D	0	1	1	+1	2	0	1	0	0.0	19:46
Christian Dvorak #22	C	0	0	0	-2	4	0	0	0	60.0	18:37
Rodrigo Abols #18	C	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	28.6	08:20
Sean Couturier #14	C	0	0	0	-2	2	1	0	0	76.5	16:07
Nicolas Deslauriers #44	L	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	0	0.0	06:43
Carl Grundstrom #91	R	0	0	0	-1	1	6	0	0	0.0	15:28
Garnet Hathaway #19	R	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0.0	08:39
Matvei Michkov #39	R	0	0	0	+1	2	0	0	2	0.0	15:27
Owen Tippett #74	R	0	0	0	-1	2	3	0	0	0.0	17:21
Nick Seeler #24	D	0	0	0	-1	0	2	4	0	0.0	19:07
Rasmus Ristolainen #55	D	0	0	0	-1	2	2	3	2	0.0	16:59
Travis Sanheim #6	D	0	0	0	-1	0	0	1	0	0.0	23:12

Flyers goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Samuel Ersson #33	L	27	23	4	.852	17/20	5/6	58:17

Buffalo Sabres

Sabres skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Zach Benson #6	L	0	2	2	+1	4	0	0	0	0.0	17:11
Mattias Samuelsson #23	D	0	2	2	+1	1	1	1	2	0.0	19:43
Josh Norris #9	C	1	0	1	+1	2	1	0	0	40.0	19:38
Noah Ostlund #86	C	1	0	1	+1	2	0	0	0	100.0	13:40
Ryan McLeod #71	C	1	0	1	+2	1	0	0	0	40.0	18:35
Tage Thompson #72	C	1	0	1	-1	2	1	1	0	55.6	20:19
Jack Quinn #22	R	1	0	1	+1	2	0	1	0	100.0	12:36
Alex Tuch #89	R	0	1	1	+1	1	3	5	2	66.7	21:29
Owen Power #25	D	0	1	1	+1	1	0	1	0	0.0	20:13
Rasmus Dahlin #26	D	0	1	1	+1	1	1	0	2	0.0	23:20
Peyton Krebs #19	C	0	0	0	-1	2	5	0	0	33.3	13:35
Tyson Kozak #48	C	0	0	0	-1	1	1	0	0	60.0	04:46
Beck Malenstyn #29	L	0	0	0	-1	2	6	1	0	0.0	08:56
Jordan Greenway #12	L	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0	0	0.0	09:43
Josh Doan #91	R	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0	0.0	19:36
Bowen Byram #4	D	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0.0	20:41
Conor Timmins #21	D	0	0	0	0	2	2	1	0	0.0	16:00
Michael Kesselring #8	D	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	0.0	14:07

Sabres goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Alex Lyon #34	W	27	24	3	.889	19/22	4/4	59:52

SOG shots on goal · BLK blocked shots · FO% faceoff win percentage · EV / PP saves over shots by strength. Skaters sorted by points, then goals.

Source NHL (boxscore, play-by-play, game summary). Shot locations are the league's tracked coordinates; the chart and the situation tables are computed by Play-Pause Hockey. Data as of 2026-09-28.