Game

Islanders at Sabres

Sabres 3, Islanders 2 in a shootout · first star Alex Lyon (0 GA, .941 SV%).

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

New York Islanders 2 at Buffalo Sabres 3

Islanders NYI

2 FINAL/SO 3

Sabres BUF

Saturday, December 20, 2025 · 5:00 PM ET · KeyBank Center, Buffalo

Line score by period
Team	1	2	3	1OT	SO	T	SOG
Islanders	0	1	1	0	0	2	34
Sabres	1	1	0	0	1	3	32

Shot chart

Every shot attempt, computed from the league's play-by-play coordinates. Islanders 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. Boxscore shots on goal: NYI 34, BUF 32.

NYI in red BUF in blue goal shot on goal missed blocked Islanders 34 shots on goal (2 goals, 19 missed, 13 blocked) attacking left; Sabres 32 shots on goal (2 goals, 15 missed, 9 blocked) attacking right.

Shots by period

Shots on goal, goals and attempts by period
Period	NYI SOG	NYI G	NYI ATT	BUF SOG	BUF G	BUF ATT
1st	7	0	18	12	1	19
2nd	15	1	26	10	1	19
3rd	7	1	15	7	0	15
OT	5	0	7	3	0	3
Total	34	2	66	32	2	56

Shots by situation

Shots on goal and goals by strength of the shooting team
Situation	NYI SOG	NYI G	BUF SOG	BUF G
Even strength	32	1	26	1
Power play	1	1	6	1
Short-handed	1	0	0	0

Attempt share by period

Islanders took 54.1% of the shot attempts, and 57.0% of the 93 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 Islanders hold the remainder. All situations unless the 5-on-5 figure is named. All 32 teams

Attempt share by period, all situations, Islanders at Sabres
Period	BUF CF%	BUF FF%
1st	51.4	51.6
2nd	42.2	44.1
3rd	50.0	52.0
OT	30.0	30.0
Game	45.9	47.0

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

Scoring summary

1st period

01:47 Rasmus Dahlin (4) PP Alex Lyon (1) · backhand 0–1

2nd period

08:55 Tage Thompson (18) Josh Doan (14), Peyton Krebs (10) · backhand 0–2
19:37 Mathew Barzal (10) Anders Lee (14), Simon Holmstrom (8) · snap 1–2

3rd period

19:31 Emil Heineman (12) PP Mathew Barzal (19), Matthew Schaefer (15) · wrist 2–2

Shootout

00:00 Josh Norris Unassisted · wrist 2–3

Three stars

Alex Lyon BUF · G #34 · 0 GA, .941 SV%
Rasmus Dahlin BUF · D #26 · 1 G, 0 A
Josh Norris BUF · C #9 · 0 G, 0 A

Penalties

Penalties
Period	Time	Team	Player	Infraction	Min	Drawn by
1st	01:27	NYI	Mathew Barzal	tripping	2	Jack Quinn
1st	02:43	BUF	Beck Malenstyn	hooking	2	Mathew Barzal
1st	05:01	NYI	Adam Pelech	delaying game puck over glass	2	—
3rd	04:24	NYI	Jean-Gabriel Pageau	tripping	2	Bowen Byram
3rd	09:41	NYI	Marshall Warren	delaying game puck over glass	2	—
3rd	18:33	BUF	Michael Kesselring	slashing	2	Anders Lee
Overtime	04:43	BUF	Alex Tuch	tripping	2	Matthew Schaefer

Boxscore

New York Islanders

Islanders skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Mathew Barzal #13	C	1	1	2	+1	4	0	1	2	53.8	23:33
Emil Heineman #51	L	1	0	1	-1	10	4	1	0	0.0	18:49
Anders Lee #27	L	0	1	1	+1	0	1	0	0	50.0	20:04
Simon Holmstrom #10	R	0	1	1	+1	2	0	0	0	0.0	17:49
Matthew Schaefer #48	D	0	1	1	-1	3	1	1	0	0.0	23:36
Calum Ritchie #64	C	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	33.3	12:57
Casey Cizikas #53	C	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	35.7	16:18
Jean-Gabriel Pageau #44	C	0	0	0	-1	3	1	0	2	69.2	15:34
Kyle MacLean #32	C	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0.0	13:55
Marc Gatcomb #16	C	0	0	0	0	1	3	0	0	0.0	11:14
Anthony Duclair #11	L	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	33.3	10:48
Jonathan Drouin #29	L	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0	0	83.3	17:16
Maxim Tsyplakov #7	R	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	100.0	12:08
Adam Pelech #3	D	0	0	0	+1	1	4	0	2	0.0	26:25
Marshall Warren #41	D	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	2	0.0	09:51
Ryan Pulock #6	D	0	0	0	-1	2	2	1	0	0.0	20:18
Scott Mayfield #24	D	0	0	0	+1	1	2	1	0	0.0	17:48
Tony DeAngelo #77	D	0	0	0	0	3	2	0	0	0.0	22:55

Islanders goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
David Rittich #33	O	32	30	2	.938	25/26	5/6	62:39

Buffalo Sabres

Sabres skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Tage Thompson #72	C	1	0	1	0	4	0	0	0	63.2	22:48
Rasmus Dahlin #26	D	1	0	1	+1	5	1	0	0	0.0	25:52
Peyton Krebs #19	C	0	1	1	0	0	3	1	0	40.0	13:29
Josh Doan #91	R	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	0.0	19:09
Josh Dunne #44	C	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	60.0	10:20
Josh Norris #9	C	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	33.3	19:39
Noah Ostlund #86	C	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	100.0	14:42
Ryan McLeod #71	C	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	13.3	17:06
Beck Malenstyn #29	L	0	0	0	0	1	5	1	2	0.0	08:55
Jordan Greenway #12	L	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	100.0	09:33
Zach Benson #6	L	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0.0	18:25
Alex Tuch #89	R	0	0	0	0	5	1	1	2	33.3	21:06
Jack Quinn #22	R	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0.0	15:24
Bowen Byram #4	D	0	0	0	0	1	3	1	0	0.0	22:49
Mattias Samuelsson #23	D	0	0	0	+1	0	1	1	0	0.0	24:12
Michael Kesselring #8	D	0	0	0	-1	2	1	3	2	0.0	17:28
Owen Power #25	D	0	0	0	-1	2	0	2	0	0.0	17:05
Zach Metsa #73	D	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0.0	14:05

Sabres goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Alex Lyon #34	W	34	32	2	.941	31/32	0/1	64:55

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.