It wasn't an ideal circumstance for Sebastian Cossa to make his NHL debut, but the Detroit Red Wings rallied to make the rookie goaltender's first game a memorable one.
The Red Wings scored twice in the final half of the third period Monday to tie the game before defeating the Buffalo Sabres 6-5 in a shootout on Dylan Larkin's deciding goal at KeyBank Center.
Cossa stopped 12-of-14 shots through two periods and overtime in relief of Ville Husso and then stopped 2-of-3 shots in the shootout, Detroit's first this season. Lucas Raymond also scored in the shootout.
The Red Wings snapped a five-game winless streak (0-3-2). The Sabres are winless in seven (0-4-3). Both teams are 11-13-4.
Cossa is Detroit's goaltender of the future, the 15th overall pick in 2021. He was recalled from the Grand Rapids Griffins on Dec. 2 due to injuries to Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon. He had backed-up Husso the three previous games before replacing him at the start of the second period Monday.
Trailing 5-3 after two periods, the Red Wings tied it on goals from Andrew Copp and Moritz Seider against former Red Wing James Reimer. Copp scored his second goal of the night and seventh of the season at 10:27. Seider tied it with 4:18 remaining on a sharp-angle shot that went in off the crossbar.
Detroit needed to kill a tripping penalty on Seider with 2:19 remaining to send it to overtime.
The teams combined for eight goals through two periods.
Raymond tied it at 3-3 at 1:05 of the second period. It was his ninth goal in 10 games and 11th of the season as he converted a cross-ice pass from Larkin off the rush.
The Sabres regained the lead quickly when Nicolas Aube-Kubel banged in a rebound at 2:26. Jason Zucker added to the lead at 9:46, getting past Justin Holl, cutting in front of the net and tucking a shot past Cossa.
Husso made his fourth start in a row and allowed three goals on seven shots in the first period.
After Zach Benson opened the scoring by beating Husso on the short side off the rush at 1:38, the Red Wings scored twice in a span of 41 seconds.
DeBrincat took a pass from Larkin, skated the puck out of the corner and backhanded a shot past Reimer at 4:05 for his 12th goal. Copp notched his first in 16 games and sixth of the season at 4:41, a net-front tip-in of J.T. Compher's shot.
Tage Thompson got behind the defense and converted a pass from Zucker to tie it 2-2 at 10:25 before Zucker put the Sabres ahead by scoring during a delayed penalty call at 15:26.
The Red Wings visit the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network).