Barely Breathin’
Mar 28, 2008 NHL
The Sabres kept their scant playoff hopes alive with a rare shootout win last night against the Ottawa Senators. Jason Spezza opened the scoring unassisted, but Maxim Afinogenov matched him a minute later. Jochen Hecht got his 22nd on the power play to finish the first period with a 2-1 lead.
Buffalo then assisted Mike Fisher in breaking out of a goal-scoring slump, as he scored the next two. However, the Goose scored the game-tying goal with less than 2 minutes to play to force the OT session. After no score there, the game went to the shootout. Like many of you, I wrote the Sabres off once they got there, but they came through and notched the win. Pominville and Roy put shots past Gerber, and Spezza had the only tally for the Sens.
I was pleasantly surprised by the play of Max, it seemed like he was skating very well and was ofthen the most dangerous player on the ice. Still a few times where I wanted him to pass instead of making yet another loop around with the puck but I can live with it when he’s getting the shots he was getting.
Unfortunately, there was no help in the standings last night as Washington and Boston both won. Philly was idle and remain 5 points ahead with the Bruins.
Montreal comes in to town tonight for another must-win game.
Tags: fisher, gaustad, gerber, hecht, Hockey, Maxim Afinogenov, NHL, pominville, roy, sabres, spezza
Sabres Get The Point At Sens
Jan 11, 2008 NHL
Hey, it’s my right to go for the easy pun. The Sabres came from 2 goals down to tie the game in the third period, and forced yet another shootout. Clarke MacArthur and Dan Paille scored in regulation. They came back without Jaroslav Spacek, however, who had back spasms after the first period. He had a go at it in the second but couldn’t do it. With Lydman taking up permanent residence in the penalty box (stick on the ice Loods!), the Sabres had to kill 4 minutes with 4 D-men.
The Senators got on the board 24 seconds into the second period, with Shean Donovan scoring the goal on a break. Alfie burned the Sabres suddenly struggling power play for a shorty late in the period. I want to give some credit to Jocelyn Thibault, who made some great highlight-reel saves. There seemed to be some lucky bounces for Buffalo, too, which is good to see. Haven’t been getting many of those.
The shootout went past the usual 3 rounds, with Mike Fisher scoring the first goal in the fourth round. It fell to Thomas Vanek to extend the game…and he NAILED IT. It was good to see, as he had some misses during the game again but might just be getting some confidence. The Sens ended it 2 rounds later however, when Dean McAmmond beat Thibault and Hecht could not put on past Gerber.
This was another solid performance for the Sabres, aside from penalty trouble they got in. Oh yeah, Gaustad had a spirited fight with the hated Chris Neil. Both got some solid shots in, I wish guys like Goose and Mair would go some more. We’ve got more of the same on Saturday as the Sabres play the Devils yet again.
Tags: B-Lo Sports, donovan, fisher, gaustad, gerber, Hockey, injury, lydman, macarthur, mcammond, neil, NHL, ottawa, paille, sabres, senators, Spacek, thibault, Thomas Vanek
