Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Hanging on through the shootout

The Sabres made it through one more game, and are still mathematically in this. With the teams shootout win over Toronto, the Sabres could still finish as high as seventh.

The Maple Leafs were a team that Buffalo was supposed to beat, and while they did, it was ugly. Miller played very poorly and let in two easy goals. On the games second goal, he was a good five feet out of position, and couldn't make the save despite the puck directly hitting his glove. Lets put Gaustad in net, at least we know that he would try.

Still with good play from Roy and Sekera and a very lucky goal by Bernier the Sabre managed to tie the game in regulation, and move onto a shootout. Bernier has been very quiet since his debut, but managed to stuff the puck across the line on a very broken play that had to be reviewed. Sekera continued to impress as Vanek's game tying goal was a deflection of the defensemen's shot.

The shootout went a full six rounds, but Buffalo looked pretty good. Kotalik finally went back to the move that worked so well for him last season, and scored. If he had been doing that all year, we might not have needed this win so badly. Although he didn't score Pominville had a pretty good shot, as did Vanek (for a change). Roy got robbed on his shot, and Afinogenov's was a very pretty goal. On the other side of the ice to his credit Miller played pretty well. After letting in the first shot, he stayed back a bit more, and saved the next five straight.

The Sabres next must win game is Thursday at Montreal, but they need some help Wednesday night from the Devils and the Penguins first. The Capitals won last night, which really doesn't help either.

Official Three Stars
  • Derek Roy
  • Anton Stralman
  • Ryan Miller

  • My Three Stars
  • Maxim Afinogenov (one assist, plus shootout goal)
  • Tomas Kaberle (one goal, plus two in the loss)
  • Derek Roy (one goal, 60% on faceoffs)
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