Norris Ends Drought With Two Goals as Sabres Down Blue Jackets 5-2

For six games, Josh Norris had been doing everything except the one thing he is paid to do. On Friday night in Buffalo, the puck finally started going in again — twice — and the Sabres rode the release to a 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Norris had not scored since October 17, a drought that had stretched across six games and begun to weigh on a player the Sabres count on for goals. He ended it with 1:50 left in the first period, restoring Buffalo's lead at 2-1, and then added a second midway through the middle frame as the Sabres blew the game open with three unanswered goals in the second. He finished the night with two goals on three shots, a plus-three rating and three hits — the kind of full, busy line that suggests a player who had been pressing and finally exhaled. He was not the only Sabre feeling good. Owen Power, the young defenceman, had three assists, setting up the opener and both of Norris's goals in spirit if not on every scoresheet line, and Jack Quinn opened the scoring at 6:50 of the first and added an assist. Rasmus Dahlin and Josh Doan scored Buffalo's other goals, Doan's capping the second-period burst at 10:53 that turned a tight game into a 5-1 lead. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 24 of 26 shots for his fifth win in 11 games. The win was Buffalo's fourth in five games, and it was welcome for a team that had scored just 15 goals in its previous seven home games. On Friday the offence came in waves: 37 shots, five different goal scorers, and a second period in which the Sabres outshot Columbus 19-11 and scored three times in less than seven minutes. The building, so often quiet in recent weeks, had something to cheer. Columbus had its moments. Kent Johnson scored and added an assist, extending his point streak to seven games, and Zach Werenski's power-play goal with 1:39 left in the third at least gave the scoreline some respectability. Jet Greaves stopped 32 of 37 shots in a busy night. But the Blue Jackets have now lost three straight road games and are 1-5-0 away from home, and the night got worse when forward Sean Monahan left in the second period with a lower-body injury sustained blocking a shot and did not return. For Buffalo, the victory keeps a good run going into a Sunday home date with Vegas. For Norris, it was simpler than that. Six games without a goal can feel like a season. Two in one night, and the season feels like it has started again.