BUFFALO – With a pair of key players missing from their lineup, the Florida Panthers couldn’t power through in a 5-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Saturday.

Tied for the team’s scoring lead during last year’s run to the Stanley Cup, Aleksander Barkov (upper body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness) both didn’t play.

“We’ve won a bunch of hockey games in the past without them in our lineup,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “We have to play a style of game that will allow that to happen. I think we were at that in our first two [games], but we weren’t tonight.”

Capping off a beautiful tic-tac-toe sequence in transition, Nate Schmidt rifled a shot past Sabres goalie Devon Levi from the slot to put the Panthers up 1-0 at 9:01 of the first period.

Inked to a one-year deal in the offseason, the goal was his first as a Panther.

“It was great,” Schmidt said. “Our forward line made a great play for me to jump up in the hole there. Sometimes you’re just trying to find an extra little spot there for those guys to find you. They made a couple really nice passes to find me in the slot.”

Jordan Greenway evened the score for the Sabres when he created some chaos around the blue paint and lifted a backhand shot into the top of the cage to make it 1-1 at 16:46. Just 41 seconds later, Tage Thompson put Buffalo on top 2-1 with a shot from the right circle at 17:27.

Extending Buffalo’s lead 1:34 into the second period, Henri Jokiharju teed up a pass from Rasmus Dahlin and blasted a one-timer past Spencer Knight to make it 3-1. At 16:22, the Sabres got another goal from a D-man when Mattias Samuelsson scored to make it 4-1.

Taking a big step in his career, this was Knight’s first NHL start since Feb. 18, 2023.

“It’s a long season, a long career hopefully,” Knight, who was taken by the Panthers with the 13^th pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, said of getting back into his old routine. “You just kind of stick with it. You go over the good and the bad, move on and then just keep battling.”

Cutting into the deficit for the Panthers on the power play, Sam Bennett set up shop in the low slot and tipped a shot from Sam Reinhart past Levi to make it 4-2 at 18:42. On a heater to start the season, Bennett has recorded at least one point in all three contests thus far.

With the Panthers pulling Knight in favor of the extra attacker, Alex Tuch shut down any chance of a comeback when he intercepted a pass in the defensive zone, carried the puck up the ice and fired it into the abandoned cage to put the Sabres up 5-2 with 1:12 left.

“We have what we need in this room,” Schmidt said of battling through some early-season adversity. “It sucks not having two of your best players, but you know what’s already in here. Now it’s time for the guys to pick up the slack. Those are guys that are irreplaceable, but we have the guys that can go out and replicate.”

THEY SAID IT

“We asked him (Spencer Knight) to make some saves, especially in the back half of that game. A lot of it, he looked solid it. A communication thing with his defense. He hasn’t played with a lot of those guys back there. A bunch of them are new. It was fine.”– Paul Maurice

“You might as well plunge yourself right into it early because it’s going to come throughout the year. Might as well get it done with and hope this is the only thing you run into.” – Nate Schmidt

CATS STATS

– Sam Bennett won 61.5% of his faceoffs.

– Patrick Giles made his NHL debut.

– Niko Mikkola blocked a team-high three shots.

– The Sabres led 14-4 in high-danger shot attempts at 5-on-5.

– Spencer Knight made five high-danger saves, per NaturalStatTrick.com

– Jesper Boqvist has recorded a point in two of the last three games.

WHAT’S NEXT?

On the first leg of a back-to-back to wrap up their road trip, the Panthers will battle the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Monday at 1 p.m. ET

To watch with Panthers Plus, visit FloridaPanthers.com/HowToWatch

.