Josh Norris scores twice as the Jets suffer a disappointing 5-1 defeat in Buffalo

After ending their four-game road losing streak with a 5-2 win in Nashville Saturday night, the Jets continued their five-game road trip tonight in Buffalo. KeyBank Center hosted tonight’s game on Amazon Prime as the Jets looked for another much-needed win. The now 13-11-0 Jets took on the 10-11-4 Buffalo Sabres, with these two teams separated by just two points in the overall NHL league standings. The Sabers started tonight’s game on a 3-3 streak, playing well in some games and getting outplayed poorly in others.

There were a few adjustments made to the Jets’ lineup tonight as they continue to try out new line combinations for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th forwards. Cole Perfetti and Vladislav Namestnikov were centered by Jonathan Toews on line 2, Adam Lowry centered Nino Niederreiter and Alex Iafallo on line 3, and on the 4th line Morgan Barron centered Gustav Nyquist and Tanner Pearson. Elias Salomonsson was replaced by Luke Schenn in the 2nd pairing with Dylan Samberg. Colin Miller remained on the 3rd pairing with Logan Stanley.

Eric Comrie was expected to get the start in goal, and he did, his fifth start since the Jets announced Hellebuyck will be out for an extended period of time. Comrie came into tonight’s game with a 5-4-0 record, a 3.05 GAA and an average of .894 SV%. Tonight’s game simply wasn’t Jets’ night, and the Sabres, who welcomed Josh Norris back to the lineup, easily took tonight’s game in dominant fashion.

1st Period

From the moment the puck dropped, the Jets didn’t seem quite ready for tonight’s game. Dylan DeMelo made a holding call 91 seconds into the game, giving the Sabers an early power play. Just over a minute later, Josh Norris (who made his return tonight) and Josh Doan put Jason Zucker ahead, who tipped the loose puck past Eric Comrie to give the Sabers an early 1-0 lead.

Just 16 seconds later, the Sabers doubled their early lead. Conor Timmins and Jack Quinn kept Bowen Byram in a hurry, and he slotted one past Comrie to make it 2-0.

Five minutes later, the Jets got their first power play of the night. Rasmus Dahlin was called for interference on Gabriel Vilardi, but the Jets couldn’t find the back of the net to get back into this game. About five minutes after the power play was over, Josh Norris gave the Sabers a 3-0 lead. Zach Benson and Tage Thompson made a nice passing play as they took the ice, and Josh Norris put the puck into the net right in front of him.

For almost the entire first period, the Jets looked like a disorganized team. The Sabers outscored the Jets 14-8 in the first 20 minutes, and Eric Comrie’s night was over when Thomas Milic would take the net to start the second period.

2nd Period

The second period was slower at first and after a three-goal first period, both teams traded one goal in the second. Kyle Connor scored his 13th of the season at 11:26 of the 2nd after Mark Scheifele set up Josh Morrissey at that point. After a nice puck move to create space, Morrissey fired a slap shot at the net, and Connor deflected the puck just enough to get the Jets on the board.

That goal could have given the Jets some hope of a comeback, but that hope may have only lasted less than two minutes. Josh Doan handed the puck to Alex Tuch who went from center ice into the Jets zone. After Tuch’s initial wrist shot was stopped by Milic, Tuch managed to grab the puck from the rebound and wrist it past Milic from a difficult angle to give the Sabers a 4–1 lead.

The entire second period went without penalties and the Sabers outscored the Jets 7-6 in the second frame. With just 20 minutes left, it didn’t feel like the Jets had much of a chance to battle back at 4-1 in Buffalo.

3rd Period

The Jets needed a strong start for the 3rd, but that didn’t happen. Rasmus Dahlin and Zach Benson set up Josh Norris, who entered the Jets zone on a breakaway. Norris moved to the backhand and slid the puck under Milic and into the back of the net to give the Sabers a commanding 5-1 lead.

Frustration began to mount for the Jets and Logan Stanley took an elbow penalty three minutes later. The Jets put an end to this Sabers power play, and a few minutes later the Jets had a chance to get one goal closer after Jason Zucker took a delay of game (puck over glass) penalty. Tonight the attack was not there (except for the 1st line) and the game remained 5-1.

With six minutes left, Logan Stanley took a foul penalty after a large scrum occurred near center ice. Beck Malenstyn, Vladislav Namestnikov and Logan Stanley would all be sent to the locker rooms early tonight, resulting in ten minutes of misconduct. The rest of the game went without much action and the Sabers held on to earn a 5-1 win at home.

The final shots on goal were 31-24 for the Sabres, as both teams had 10 shots on goal in the third. The Jets trailed slightly in faceoffs (won 21/44), but they outscored the Sabers 35-12 while blocking 17 shots to the Sabers 8. Josh Norris was easily tonight’s first star, scoring 2 goals and adding 1 assist for 3 points in just his second game of the 2025-2026 season. Tonight was a pretty poor team performance overall from the Jets, who now look to end their road trip with a win in Montreal on Wednesday.

Next

With a five-game road trip and four-game road trip behind them, the Jets’ regular season schedule continues with a Wednesday night game against the Montreal Canadiens. Puck drop for this match will again take place just after 6:30 PM CT. Stay up to date with all the latest Jets news, plus previews and recaps of every Jets game this season, right here at Jets Nation.

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