BUFFALO, N.Y. — Linus Ullmark stopped 31 shots and the Buffalo Sabres snapped an 18-game skid — the NHL’s longest in 17 years — with a 6-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.

Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin was the first off the bench as the final horn sounded and led a line of Sabres players high-fiving Ullmark in an arena without fans.

It was the first win for Buffalo since a 4-1 victory at New Jersey on Feb. 23, and ended an 0-15-3 streak. The slump was tied for the league’s 14th longest, and worst since the Pittsburgh Penguins had a 0-17-1 stretch during the 2003-04 season.

The Sabres also snapped a 0-9-2 home skid, one short of matching a franchise record set during the 1990-91 season. Buffalo won for just the third time at home, and first since a 4-3 shootout win over the Devils on Jan. 30.

Steven Fogarty scored his first career goal and added an assist, and defenseman Brandon Montour sealed the win by scoring short-handed goals 37 seconds apart, the first into an empty net.

Two nights after squandering a 3-0 lead in the third period of a 4-3 overtime loss to Flyers, the Sabres showed no signs of lingering aftereffects.

Sam Reinhart and Curtis Lazar scored 2:27 apart in the opening period to stake Buffalo to a 2-0 lead. After Philadelphia’s Ivan Provorov scored 3:50 into the second period, Buffalo responded by closing the period with goals from Fogarty and Casey Mittelstadt.

Mittelstadt’s goal, a softie that beat Brian Elliott through the legs, chased the Flyers’ goalie after he allowed four goals on 16 shots.

The win was the first under interim coach Don Granato, who took over after Ralph Krueger was fired March 17 during a calamitous season that is likely to end with Buffalo extending its playoff drought to an NHL record-matching 10th consecutive year.

Coming off consecutive wins for the first time in a month, the Flyers’ inconsistencies turned up again in dropping to 6-10-1 in their past 17. The slump has dropped them into fifth in the East Division.

Elliott, who stopped 29 shots on Monday and shut out Buffalo twice already this season, dropped to 17-3-2 for his career against the Sabres.

With Carter Hart relegated to practice-only duty to see if the third-year starter can shake off a season-long funk, Alex Lyon finished the game for the Flyers in his first appearance of the season. He made nine saves on 10 shots.

Buffalo was coming off consecutive games in which it blew leads in a failed bid to end the drought. On Saturday in Boston, the Sabres blew two one-goal leads in a 3-2 loss to the Bruins. Then came the meltdown on Monday, in which Sean Couturier tied the game with 1:29 left, and Provorov sealed it 42 seconds into overtime.

It was an outing Dahlin chalked up to the team panicking.

Rather than give in to frustration, Granato has preached attention to detail and the team building off the experience in learning what went wrong.

This time the Sabres made their lead stick, even after Provorov’s shot from left point banked in off Montour, or while being outshot 11-0 through the first nine minutes of the second.

Fogarty scored on Buffalo’s second shot of the frame after being set up alone in front at the 9:42 mark. Mittelstadt made it 4-1 six minutes later, after being set up alone in the right circle.

MAPLE LEAFS 3, JETS 1: Auston Matthews scored his league-leading 24th goal and goaltender Jack Campbell stayed unbeaten this season as visiting Toronto downed Winnipeg to extend its lead atop the North Division to three points.

Adding to the Jets woes, captain Blake Wheeler did not play after the first period. There was no immediate word on a reason for his absence.

Zach Hyman and Alex Kerfoot also scored for Toronto. Mitch Marner, with two assists, earned his 13th multipoint game of the season.

Josh Morrissey scored for the Jets.

NOTES

FLYERS: Cam York is foregoing his final two years at Michigan after the defenseman signed a three-year entry level contract with the Flyers.

The contract comes into effect this season, the team said in announcing the move shortly before the Flyers played at Buffalo.

The signing comes after York’s second season at Michigan abruptly ended Friday. The Wolverines were forced to withdraw from the NCAA Tournament before their first-round meeting against Minnesota-Duluth because of a positive COVID-19 test.

The 20-year-old is from Anaheim Hills, California, and was selected with the 14th pick in the 2019 draft.

He had four goals and 20 points in 24 games for Michigan this season. Overall, York finished his college career with nine goals and 36 points in 54 games.

CANUCKS: The Vancouver Canucks signed goaltender Thatcher Demko to a five-year contract extension.

Demko took over as the No. 1 goaltender for the Canucks after Jacob Markstrom went to the Calgary Flames in free agency. The 25-year-old Demko is 12-12-1 with a 2.77 goals-against average and .917 save percentage this season.

COVID-19:  The Vancouver Canucks’ game against the Calgary Flames was postponed by the NHL because of the league’s COVID-19 protocol.

Vancouver had two players and a member of its coaching staff enter the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol list. The league said it would provide another update on Thursday.

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