Cole Knuble's first two NHL goals powers Flyers to a third straight victory with 3-1 win over Sabres

Jackie Spiegel, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Oct 21, 2026

Published in Hockey

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

BUFFALO — The kids are all right.

Playing in their second and seventh NHL games, respectively, Cole Knuble and Oliver Bonk led the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres. The 22-year-old Knuble notched a pair of goals, and the 21-year-old Bonk registered the primary assists on each one.

After a nine-game winless streak to start the season, the Flyers have now won three straight games (3-6-3).

Although the Sabres outshot the Flyers by a wide margin and had 11 more opportunities to score, when the buzzer sounded to end the first period, the Flyers had a 2-0 lead.

Goalie Dan Vladař was stellar, stopping all 16 shots he saw in the opening period, including a chance by perennial 40-plus goal scorer Tage Thompson off a turnover — with Bonk smartly tying up a Sabres player as he crashed for a rebound — and a save on a rising shot by Rasmus Dahlin before kicking out the pad on another shot by the Sabres captain later in the period.

The first goal by the Flyers on the night was the first goal of Knuble’s NHL career. Recalled from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League on Monday, the 5-foot-10, 184-pound forward had an impressive debut, showing off his high motor, hockey sense, and “dog on a bone” mentality.

On Wednesday, that paid off.

The Flyers lost a defensive zone face-off, but Buffalo’s Mattias Samuelsson, son of former Flyers defenseman Kjell Samuelsson, tried to tap the puck to a teammate but didn’t get much mustard on it. Denver Barkey and Jacob Gaucher applied pressured, with Gaucher laying a hit on Samuelsson, and the puck ended up in the neutral zone.

Knuble battled Sabres top-line winger Josh Doan to get it into the offensive zone, and Barkey, providing puck support, scooped up the loose puck. He sent it to Bonk at the point for a shot that, although blocked in front by Samuelsson, went right to Knuble, and he buried it around the pad of goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.

Just like his dad, Mike Knuble, who once suited up for the Flyers, Cole Knuble buried the puck from atop the crease. The first father-son duo in Flyers history have now scored for the Orange and Black, with Mike and the family watching from the stands at KeyBank Center.

On the Flyers’ first power play of the night, and with 43 seconds left in the opening frame, they cashed in to extend the power-play prowess to three games.

After skating four-on-four, thanks to Noah Östlund being called for slashing on Noah Cates, the top unit of Trevor Zegras, Matvei Michkov, Jamie Drysdale, Porter Martone and Barkey got to work after Nick Seeler served his time.

Zegras sent a shot wide as his massive windup didn’t connect fully, and then 21 seconds later, Michkov skated through the right circle and put a snapshot on goal. Lukkonen made the save, but the puck popped up, and Zegras knocked it into the open net for his third goal of the season.

The tally extended Zegras’ point streak to three games (two goals, three assists) and Michkov’s to four (four goals, two assists). Drysdale got the secondary assist for his first point of the season.

With under five minutes to go in the middle frame, the Flyers had a five-on-three when Sabres’ Owen Power was called for high-sticking Michkov and Jason Zucker was already in the box. On replay, it was clear that Zegras’ stick was the one that hit Michkov, but the call stood.

The Flyers registered five shot attempts and one shot on goal, and six seconds after it went back to even strength, Travis Sanheim was caught high-sticking Zach Benson. Fired up by the bad call, Buffalo came out firing, and Zucker scored a goal from in front as a shot-pass by Jack Quinn went off his body and behind Vladař.

It seemed like the game would turn, but in the third period, Knuble stopped the Sabres push. The Flyers pressed Buffalo high in the offensive zone, and Bonk sent the puck to Knuble in the right circle.

He skated to the net, faked like he was going to do a wraparound and instead banked it in off the right skate of Luukkonen for his first career multigoal game.

Breakaways

Forward Tyson Foerster returned after missing Monday’s game due to injury. Foerster blocked a shot with his right hand Saturday against the Ottawa Senators. … Forward Michael Bunting was a healthy scratch for the first time since signing a one-year contract on Oct. 6. … Samuelsson, who was born in Philly, played in his 300th NHL game. … Defenseman Hunter McDonald had a big open-ice hit on Ryan McLeod in the neutral zone and then dropped the gloves with Samuelsson. The Sabres defenseman got an instigator penalty. … In the end, the Flyers were outshot by the Sabres, 28-26.

Up next

The Flyers return to action on Saturday, hosting Cutter Gauthier and the Anaheim Ducks.