BUFFALO — They rank last in goals scored, and despite a recent winning streak, the Buffalo Sabres have sat near the bottom of the N.H.L. standings since the first weeks of the season.

Yet Buffalo is an unlikely leader in at least one category: Zemgus Girgensons, a 20-year-old center, has been annihilating the competition in fan voting for the 2015 All-Star Game, to be played in Columbus, Ohio, next month.

How a second-year player who does not rank among the top 100 scorers this season has amassed more than twice as many votes as superstars like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews of Chicago and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins has stirred speculation. The only Latvian player in the N.H.L., Girgensons appears to be the beneficiary of nationalistic frenzy in his home country, a nation on the Baltic Sea with just over two million people.

“The whole nation is behind him right now,” said Arturs Irbe, Buffalo’s goaltending coach and a native of Latvia who played in the N.H.L. for parts of 13 seasons. “They don’t want to let it go. Unless the N.H.L. changes their voting rules, it might be a regular occurrence.”