Solid Road Win

The title says it all…the Buffalo Sabres rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win 4-3 last night at the Igloo. The Penguins had a 2-1 lead in the first, with two Evgeni Malkin passes to Ruslan Fedotenko sandwiched around a Derek Roy tally. Buffalo hurt themselves with penalties however (some bad calls in there though), giving Pittsburgh a 5 on 3 early in the second, with Kris Letang scoring on a Sidney Crosby feed to break up the perfect PK run of the past several games.

The next score (to get to 3-2) was Ales Kotalik getting a rebound in front of Dany Sabourin and putting it home, which was the beginning of a momentum shift to Buffalo. The Sabres PK was ON, despite letting in the Letang goal earlier. Vanek was called for Delay of Game for laying in the vicinity of the puck along the boards, and then someone at the bench objected strenuously enough to get an extra penalty for a full 2 minute 5 on 3 for the Pens. It was killed successfully, and the Sabres never looked back. Paille cleaned up in front of the Penguin net a few minutes later to tie the game at three.

Thomas Vanek completed the comeback, retaking the goal-scoring lead with his 20th of the season, and Ryan Miller and the boys held on from there. Miller, by the way, made some outstanding saves despite allowing three goals, with a couple outright robberies. What did I like? Pretty much all of the goals were created due to guys either being in front of the net or driving to the net. All four lines contributed a goal. Vanek was able to work through a rough start to contribute the game-winner.

I’ll be at Wednesday night’s game against the Lightning. Section 113…hope the bad blood built up in the last game carries over. Lecavalier/Hecht round 2?