A big win over Montreal

The Buffalo Sabres came through and earned a solid 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadians on Friday night.

For the first time in a long while the Sabres were able to dress a respectable blue line. In his first game back, Spacek scored the first goal of the game. Buffalo then got their second goal from Nathan Paetsch who was bumped up to playing forward in this game. Buffalo's scoring was then finished up by Tim Connolly who scored his ninth goal in the past nine games.

Montreal got scoring from Saku Koivu and Roman Hamrlik, but it was not enough to come back in this game, as Miller played well, earning the win in a game where the Sabres were outshot 37-22.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Tim Connolly

Maxim Lapierre

My Three Stars

Roman Hamrlik (one goal, three shots, plus one)

Ryan Miller (35 saves, 95% saves)

Nathan Paetsch (one goal, plus one, two shots)

A Victory of Errors

So much for the goaltender showdown this game was supposed to be. After a disastrous second period Buffalo came back to somehow win the game in overtime.

Coming into the game both of the starting goaltenders had excellent starts to their season and were each undefeated with a 4-0-0 record. Tonight however, both teams allowed more goals against then they have the entire season, and let in a number of soft goals.

Buffalo got out to a quick start with a goal by Drew Stafford, that came on a backhand following a series of good passes. This is the second straight game Stafford has had, and is starting to finally get into a groove this season. At this point you would have to assume that he will have a better year then he did last season.

In the second period Buffalo began to fall apart. They only got outshot by a little bit, but Miller let in two soft goals. In the third period, Miller shot the puck into his own net during Minnesota's powerplay to give them a 3-1 lead.

For the third straight game however, Buffalo closed a two point deficit. This is the type of thing that they did all the time in the two season following the lockout, but were missing last year. Things got rolling when Mair tipped in a shot by Nathan Paetsch. Paetsch was playing in his first game this season to fill in for the injured Craig Rivet, and played well this game.

Thomas Vanek then tied up the game late in the third on a bit of a weak shot to send the game into overtime. 44 seconds in, Derek Roy scored to give Buffalo the win.

The Vanek-Roy-Stafford line had three goals and three assists between them, and carried the team offensively in this game. It would have been easy to give up going down by two early in the third on an own goal, but the Sabres should be commended for not allowing it to happen.

Also Doug Johnson is an idiot. The job of picking the game's three stars fell to this man and for star number one he picked the goalie that despite winning let in two soft goals and then shot the puck into his own net. That was not a anywhere near an award winning performance. His Johnson's choice for the third star was Antti Miettinen who finished the game with no points and a game low minus three rating. I usually disagree somewhat with the three star selection, but I have never seen it this poorly done.

Official Three Stars

Ryan Miller

Brent Burns

Antti Miettine

My Three Stars

Drew Stafford (one goal, one assist)

Thomas Vanek (one goal, one assist, game leading plus three)

Derek Roy (game winning goal, one assist, plus two)

Knee Surgery

Sabres captain Craig Rivet had knee surgery on Wednesday morning and as a result will be out for a few weeks. Obviously not good news for Buffalo, as Rivet had been playing well and even set up one of the goals in the game against Boston.

Gaustad, Hecht and Connolly are also out for the Sabres, but this is the first injury they will have to deal with on the defensive side of things. Nathan Paetsch who has been a healthy scratch so far this season should take his spot. Paetsch's play was questionable at times last season, but he has also proven that he can be good as well.

Buffalo has been very good defensively this year, not giving up more than two goals to anyone. They will have to do even better against their Thursday night opponent, the Minnesota Wild.

The Wild are undefeated at 4-0-0 and have a very solid backend. Last week's NHL first star Thomas Vanek was followed closely by second star Niklas Backstrom. He has a 1.72 goals against average, so besides putting up points, Buffalo will also have to their best to limit any against. It should be a good game, against a team that we do not see too often.

Sabres come back again to win over Tampa

For the second time in two nights the Sabres were able to come from behind to win the game. Once again finding themselves down a goal in the third period the Sabres came back to win 4-3 in overtime.

The Sabres played well and really got some breaks on the calls this game as well. Tampa Bay had a potential game winning goal disallowed due to a goalie interference call, and while it was the right call (even Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella admitted so), there wouldn't have been too much question if the goal had been allowed to stand. Later in overtime Vanek scored the winning goal with Paille clearly offsides. In all fairness though he never touched the puck on the play.

Gaustad, Afinogenov , and Paetsch got the earlier goals of the game, all of which were important. Afinogenov 's goal got the Sabres started after going down 2-0 early in the second, while Paetsch's goal tied up the game late in the third to send it into overtime and guarantee the Sabres would at least get one point out of the game. Gaustad's goal was the result of the Sabres powerplay effort in the game and went a respectable 1 for 3.

Also for the three stats, it appears as if the Tampa media didn't even watch the game and are just used to automatically voting for Lecavalier and St. Louis.

Official Three Stars

Nathan Paetsch

Vincent Lecavalier

Martin St. Louis

My Three Stars

Maxim Afinogenov (goal to get the Sabres back in the game)

Nathan Paetsch (first goal of the season to tie the game)

Thomas Vanek (an assist, plus the game winner in overtime)