Game

Canucks at Sabres

Sabres 5, Canucks 3 · first star Alex Tuch (1 G, 1 A).

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

Vancouver Canucks 3 at Buffalo Sabres 5

Canucks VAN

3 FINAL 5

Sabres BUF

Tuesday, January 6, 2026 · 7:00 PM ET · KeyBank Center, Buffalo

Line score by period
Team	1	2	3	T	SOG
Canucks	0	0	3	3	37
Sabres	2	1	2	5	20

Shot chart

Every shot attempt, computed from the league's play-by-play coordinates. Canucks attack left, Sabres attack right, all periods folded onto one rink. Attempts are plotted where the league recorded them, so the 4 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: VAN 37, BUF 20.

VAN in red BUF in blue goal empty-net goal shot on goal missed blocked Canucks 37 shots on goal (3 goals, 22 missed, 17 blocked) attacking left; Sabres 20 shots on goal (5 goals, 13 missed, 12 blocked) attacking right.

Shots by period

Shots on goal, goals and attempts by period
Period	VAN SOG	VAN G	VAN ATT	BUF SOG	BUF G	BUF ATT
1st	15	0	27	9	2	18
2nd	8	0	18	7	1	19
3rd	14	3	31	4	2	8
Total	37	3	76	20	5	45

Shots by situation

Shots on goal and goals by strength of the shooting team
Situation	VAN SOG	VAN G	BUF SOG	BUF G
Even strength	24	2	19	4
Power play	12	1	0	0
Short-handed	1	0	1	1
Into an empty net	0	0	1	1

Attempt share by period

Canucks took 62.8% of the shot attempts, and 52.3% of the 86 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 Canucks hold the remainder. All situations unless the 5-on-5 figure is named. All 32 teams

Attempt share by period, all situations, Canucks at Sabres
Period	BUF CF%	BUF FF%
1st	40.0	37.1
2nd	51.4	46.4
3rd	20.5	24.1
Game	37.2	35.9

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

Scoring summary

1st period

02:01 Tage Thompson (21) Bowen Byram (12), Owen Power (10) · wrist 0–1
11:24 Ryan McLeod (8) SH Alex Tuch (21), Mattias Samuelsson (14) · wrist 0–2

2nd period

09:37 Alex Tuch (13) Bowen Byram (13), Josh Norris (9) · wrist 0–3

3rd period

06:13 Zach Metsa (1) Beck Malenstyn (4), Jordan Greenway (4) · wrist 0–4
10:17 Jake DeBrusk (11) PP Kiefer Sherwood (5), Brock Boeser (10) · snap 1–4
15:16 Elias Pettersson (11) Brock Boeser (11), Filip Hronek (23) · wrist 2–4
15:55 Liam Ohgren (3) Marcus Pettersson (8), Linus Karlsson (9) · wrist 3–4
18:36 Josh Doan (13) EN Unassisted · wrist 3–5

Three stars

Alex Tuch BUF · R #89 · 1 G, 1 A
Bowen Byram BUF · D #4 · 0 G, 2 A
Zach Metsa BUF · D #73 · 1 G, 0 A

Penalties

Penalties
Period	Time	Team	Player	Infraction	Min	Drawn by
1st	03:21	BUF	Josh Norris	hooking	2	Elias Pettersson
1st	10:49	BUF	Bowen Byram	interference	2	Brock Boeser
2nd	05:09	VAN	Tom Willander	hooking	2	Jason Zucker
3rd	08:26	BUF	Tage Thompson	high sticking double minor	4	Jake DeBrusk

Boxscore

Vancouver Canucks

Canucks skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Brock Boeser #6	R	0	2	2	-3	3	1	1	0	66.7	18:34
Elias Pettersson #40	C	1	0	1	-2	3	0	1	0	37.5	18:41
Jake DeBrusk #74	L	1	0	1	-2	4	2	1	0	0.0	16:58
Liam Ohgren #92	L	1	0	1	+1	4	1	0	0	0.0	13:09
Linus Karlsson #94	C	0	1	1	+1	3	1	0	0	0.0	15:25
Kiefer Sherwood #44	L	0	1	1	-2	6	4	0	0	0.0	17:37
Filip Hronek #17	D	0	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	0.0	26:20
Marcus Pettersson #29	D	0	1	1	0	0	2	0	0	0.0	18:37
Aatu Räty #54	C	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	75.0	12:09
David Kampf #64	C	0	0	0	-1	0	2	0	0	27.3	13:50
Max Sasson #63	C	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	62.5	14:52
Drew O'Connor #18	L	0	0	0	-1	3	0	0	0	0.0	12:23
Evander Kane #91	L	0	0	0	-2	3	0	0	0	100.0	18:11
Nils Hoglander #21	L	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0.0	10:53
Pierre-Olivier Joseph #7	D	0	0	0	-1	0	0	2	0	0.0	15:34
Tom Willander #5	D	0	0	0	-1	1	0	0	2	0.0	16:40
Tyler Myers #57	D	0	0	0	-2	2	1	1	0	0.0	16:26
Zeev Buium #24	D	0	0	0	-1	1	0	1	0	0.0	22:50

Canucks goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Thatcher Demko #35	L	19	15	4	.789	15/18	0/0	58:51

Buffalo Sabres

Sabres skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Alex Tuch #89	R	1	1	2	+2	3	1	2	0	100.0	19:42
Bowen Byram #4	D	0	2	2	+1	2	0	2	2	0.0	24:29
Ryan McLeod #71	C	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	58.8	14:30
Tage Thompson #72	C	1	0	1	+2	1	2	0	4	66.7	18:37
Josh Doan #91	R	1	0	1	+2	2	3	0	0	0.0	18:11
Zach Metsa #73	D	1	0	1	+1	1	0	0	0	0.0	12:16
Josh Norris #9	C	0	1	1	+1	1	0	0	2	38.5	14:28
Beck Malenstyn #29	L	0	1	1	0	0	3	1	0	0.0	11:56
Jordan Greenway #12	L	0	1	1	0	0	2	0	0	0.0	10:11
Mattias Samuelsson #23	D	0	1	1	+2	1	1	5	0	0.0	24:36
Owen Power #25	D	0	1	1	+1	1	0	1	0	0.0	22:09
Noah Ostlund #86	C	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	37.5	10:59
Peyton Krebs #19	C	0	0	0	+2	0	4	0	0	66.7	17:12
Jason Zucker #17	L	0	0	0	+1	0	0	0	0	100.0	14:11
Zach Benson #6	L	0	0	0	-1	2	0	0	0	0.0	12:52
Jack Quinn #22	R	0	0	0	-1	2	0	0	0	0.0	11:11
Jacob Bryson #78	D	0	0	0	+1	1	0	1	0	0.0	12:50
Rasmus Dahlin #26	D	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.0	21:49

Sabres goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen #1	W	37	34	3	.919	22/24	11/12	60:00

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.