Capt. Kyle Okposo, goalie Eric Comrie clutch for Sabres in nothing win on Long Island

NEW YORK (AP)-- Kyle Okposo scored with 6 1/2 minutes remaining, Eric Comrie stopped 27 shots for his 2nd profession nothing, and the Buffalo Sabres beat the New york city Islanders 2-0 on Saturday.

Jeff Skinner included an empty-net objective to assist Buffalo win its 2nd straight after losing the previous 4. The Sabres are 4 points behind Pittsburgh for the final wild card in the tightly-contested Eastern Conference playoff race with the Penguins hosting Washington on Saturday night.

" It was a very mature game, I believed from us," Okposo stated. "We played the video game that needed to be played today and we didn't get annoyed. We simply continued to play our video game. We didn't get drawn into trying to make too many plays or taking things that weren't there. That's certainly a really frustrating team to bet, they know how to win, they understand how to lock it down. We just did a great task remaining patient."

Semyon Varlamov finished with 33 saves for New York, which lost its 2nd straight. The Islanders had actually won 11 directly at home against the Sabres.

Comrie made a key third-period save with a stellar right-pad stop on Pierre Engvall from in close to keep the video game scoreless midway through the last period.

" I found his stick blade early and saw that he is on his backhand," Comrie stated. "He's either going to try and chip it truly fast or pull it. I saw his left shoulder dip and understood he was going to pull it (to his forehand).".

Okposo opened the scoring with 6:29 left as he notched his 10th of the season. Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield stopped working to clear the puck and Buffalo capitalized. Sabres defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin sent a fluttering puck throughout the slot and Okposo controlled the pass and fired a wrist shot previous Varlamov's right pad, off the post and in.

Okposo invested the first nine years of his NHL career with the Islanders before signing a seven-year $42 million contract with the Sabres in the summer of 2016. He was called captain of Buffalo ahead of this season.

Skinner tallied an empty-net goal off a help from Dylan Cozens in the last minute to seal the triumph for Buffalo.

" You had to be really patient," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "That's something that hasn't been in our video game a lot this season. We stayed on it, remained on it and really, great task and needed to be good defensively this evening.".

UP NEXT.

Sabres host Montreal on Monday night.