BUFFALO, N.Y. — 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 Thursday night.
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.
Scotty Bowman (1,244), Joel Quenneville (969) and Barry Trotz (914) are the other coaches with at least 900 wins.
“It just means I’ve coached a lot of hockey games, had a lot of good players and a lot of good coaches and management that put a lot of trust in me,” Ruff said. “It isn’t about me, it’s about the teams that I’ve had and the people around me.”
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.
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.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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