BUFFALO, N.Y. -- — Rookie Colten Ellis stopped 37 shots for his first NHL career shutout, and the Buffalo Sabres beat Columbus 5-0 to dent the Blue Jackets’ playoff chances on Thursday night.

Josh Doan broke the game open with two third-period goals, while Peyton Krebs, Jack Quinn and Rasmus Dahlin also scored.

Buffalo (49-23-8) reached the 49-win mark for just the fourth time in team history, and maintained the Atlantic Division lead with a week left in the regular season.

Ellis improved to 8-4-1 while making his first start in more than two months. He got the start with Alex Lyon expected to miss at least a week with a strained lower-body muscle sustained in practice a day earlier.

Jet Greaves stopped 19 shots in dropping to 2-5-1 in his past eight starts.

The Blue Jackets failed to build off a 4-3 overtime win at Detroit on Tuesday, and dropped to 1-6-1 in their past eight. Columbus has just three games remaining and began the day sitting ninth in tightly contested Eastern Conference race in which three points separated eighth-place Ottawa and 12th-place Washington.

Krebs opened the scoring 13:41 in on a two-on-one set up by Josh Norris blocking Zach Werenski’s pass inside the blue line of Buffalo’s zone. Norris immediately fed Krebs, who drove up the right wing and snapped a shot that beat Greaves inside the far post.

The Sabres scored four times in the third, with Doan beginning the surge at the 7:19 mark. Doan stripped Charlie Coyle of the puck at the Columbus blue line, drove in alone and beat Greaves on the glove side.

Up next

Blue Jackets: At Montreal on Saturday night.

Sabres: At Chicago on Monday night.

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This story has been corrected to reflect that Columbus has three games remaining.

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