Sabres-Red Wings: Detroit Dominates Buffalo 3-1 for Sixth Straight Win

The Buffalo Sabres had beaten the Rangers the night before.  They had won four in a row. They were playing better than they had since the first weeks of the season.

But beating the Detroit Red Wings in Hockeytown, in the second of back-to-back games, would be a tall order.  Especially given the Red Wing's own five-game winning streak.

The Sabres played the Red Wings close for 57 minutes, but in the end, tired legs sealed their fate as they coughed up the puck twice to the swirling Red Wings in the last two minutes. Even Ryan Miller playing his best hockey of the year could not keep the puck out of the net.

Perhaps inspired by their shoot-out win the night before, the Sabres came out skating. The Roy-Vanek-Stafford line has been the Sabres hottest over the last several games. Five minutes in, they made a nice play in the Red Wings end and Derek Roy, the Sabres hottest player, knocked in a rebound for his fifth goal in the last five games.

But the Red Wings began taking over the play, and though the first period ended with the Sabres still clinging to a 1-0 lead, Detroit held a 13-6 advantage in shots.

Detroit's dominance continued in the second period.  The Red Wings are a fast, skilled team and the Sabres fore-checked tentatively, as if fearing the Red Wings rapid transition attack would lead to an odd-man rush.  With no pressure on them, the Red Wings broke out their end easily and the majority of the play was in the Buffalo end.

Though the Red Wings were buzzing, out-shooting the Sabres 12-4, and winning 75 percent of the face-offs, the Sabres managed to keep most of their scoring chances to the perimeter.

But on a late rush that the Sabres appeared to have under control, the Red Wing's Lebda made a nice feed, and the trailing Hudler fired a one-timer inside the post on the short side to tie the game.

The third period was more of the same—Red Wings racing around the Sabre zone, Buffalo barely hanging on.  But hang on they did, and with about four minutes to play, Jochen Hecht made a great play at the Sabres blue-line to break away two on one with Jason Pominville.

Hecht skated wide, drawing the Red Wing defenseman to him.  His pass cross-ice wasn't perfect, but if Pominville could have corralled it, he would have had an open net.

To win games like this, you have to have everything go your way, and a Sabres goal at this moment might have achieved a miraculous victory.  Pominville has scored some big goals for the Sabres, but halfway through this season the population of Pominville is just 12, well short of his 34 goal pace last year.

Having missed their opportunity, there was still hope the Sabres might hang on for a tie. But with just over two minutes to go, the Sabres again were unable to control the puck in their own end, and when the puck ended up on the Red Wing's Mikael Samuelsson's stick, he simply skated around Miller and deposited a backhand into the open net.  

Rabid fans may have still held out hope the Sabres could somehow knot the score, but the team was truly spent, and a minute later Hossa fired a slap-shot past Miller for a 3-1 lead.

The Sabres pulled Miller and were actually able to control the puck in the Red Wing's end for the last minute, but could not score, and the game ended with a 3-1 Red Wing's victory.

There's no shame in losing to the defending Stanley Cup champs on their ice in the second of back-to-back games against a rested Red Wings team.

Take encouragement that Ryan Miller continued his stellar play, facing 48 shots on top of the 43 he faced against the Rangers the night before.  Be concerned that the Sabres gave up more than 40 shots for the second straight game.

Tonight, the Red Wings were clearly the better team.  Are they that much better than the Sabres?  Probably not, but to beat the Red Wings, especially in a seven game series, the Sabres would have to be firing on all cylinders and have some bounces go their way.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  For the Sabres, just making the playoffs this year would be a nice start.  They are about to embark on a west coast trip and play only two of their next 10 games at home.  

If they keep up their improved play and come out of this trip with at least four or five wins, they should continue to hold one of the top eight playoff spots.

NOTES:  Lindy Ruff inserted rookie Chris Butler into the lineup and sat Henrik Tallinder down.  Tallinder has been minus-3 over his last 10 games, compared to Butler's plus-4.  

The thinking here is that Butler should be in the lineup, but that maybe Ruff sat the wrong guy. Toni Lydman has been minus-5 during the same period, and Tallinder seems a little faster, more physical, and less prone to the giveaways than Lydman.