Coach Lindy Ruff earns 900th victory in Sabres’ season-ending 5-4 win over Flyers

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Ryan McLeod scored a goal and added two assists, and Lindy Ruff became the NHL’s fifth coach to reach 900 wins in the Buffalo Sabres 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in each team’s season finale on Thursday night.

Alex Tuch, JJ Peterka and Jack Quinn had a goal and assist each, and Peyton Krebs scored a short-handed goal for Buffalo. James Reimer made 21 saves for his eighth win in 10 starts to finish the season 10-10-2.

Ruff joined Florida’s Paul Maurice (916 wins) as the NHL’s only active coaches with 900 or more wins. In his second stint coaching the Sabres, Ruff ranks second with 607 victories with one team, behind only Al Arbour, who had 740 with the Islanders.

Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov snapped a six-game goal drought by scoring twice and Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink had a goal and assist. Rookie Aleksei Kolosov stopped 26 shots, and the loss secured Philadelphia finishing last in the Eastern Conference standings for the second time in team history.

After nearly blowing a 4-1 second-period lead, McLeod sealed the win with an empty-netter with 48 seconds left in a game the Sabres never trailed.

Takeaways

Flyers: Michkov finished with 26 goals, the sixth most by a Flyers rookie, and most since Mikael Renberg had 38 in 1993-94.

Sabres: Tuch set an NHL record among forwards with 112 blocked shots.

Key moment

With Buffalo up 4-3, a replay review with 11:38 showed Flyers’ Sean Couturier’s shot sneaking under Reimer, but the puck failing to completely cross the line.

Key stat

The Sabres closed the season with a 23-15-3 home record, marking their most wins in Buffalo since having 25 in 2009-10.

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