Sabres-Stars: Buffalo Rallys Behind the Goose and Beats Dallas in Shootout

The Buffalo Sabres rolled into Dallas coming off a dismal night before in Chi-town, and a bunch of fans started off rolling their eyes saying, “Here we go again.”

In the first period, Dallas started out making the Sabres look slow-motion-esque.

Sabres forward Drew Stafford took two bad penalties halfway through the first, that both resulted in power play goals for Dallas on two uninspired penalty-kill attempts. (Niskanen at 10:44, Ott at 14:40.)

Dallas outshot Buffalo in the first, 12-5.

The second period started out in much of the same way the first ended. Dallas’s Daley netted one just 2:47 into the second to make it 3-0 Dallas.

It only seemed to be getting worse for Buffalo—until a front-of-the-net scramble sent Paul Gaustad and Brian Sutherby into a spirited fight that the Buffalo fans in attendance will say their “Goose” won.

This was the turning point for Buffalo, and sparked their physical play. Once Gaustad was out of the box he went to work on a power play resulting from a hooking penalty, in which he scored a goal off the deflection from Craig Rivet making it 3-1.

James Neal took a holding the stick penalty for Dallas late in the second that spilled over into a third period power play for Buffalo, where they picked up momentum. Jochen Hecht wristed one from three feet out into an empty net to cut the deficit to one.

However, Brad Richards handcuffed Miller over his right shoulder just 48 seconds later to extend the Dallas lead back to two.

An inspired push from the Sabres dominated the game all the way till the fat lady sang. Gaustad wristed one in from four feet out off a centering pass from Drew Stafford, and just 16 seconds later Clarke MacArthur redirected one past Marty Turco from Jaroslav Spacek.

This tied it up at 4-4, and a hard-fought battle for the final ten minutes sends us to “OOoovertime” at American Airlines Center.

The overtime period saw many chances go both ways, but ultimately sent us into a shootout.

Miller seemed like a wall after the first three attempts making great saves on deke attempts and Turco wasn’t far behind stealing a wrist shot from power-forward Ales Kotalik. After the first three rounds, there was still no score, so it continued, through the fourth round.

In the fifth round Jere Lehtinen wristed one past Miller, putting the pressure on Derek Roy. He delivered. A deke and a rolling-puck backhand past Marty Turco extended the shootout into round 6.

Miller stoned Parrish cold and up came Jason Pominville who wristed one into the top shelf ending the shootout 2-1 in favor of the Sabres.

Sabres win 5-4. SO

Gaustad was the first star of the game in a road building, a tall order to accomplish. The honor was well deserved as he turned around the slow-skating, turnover-laden Sabres. Shooting 40 percent (2/5) with seven hits and a fighting major that turned around the game for the Sabres.

However, the Sabres NEED to start playing three periods of hockey if they want to contend. 30 minutes of regulation hockey is not enough to win in this league most of the time.

Other than that, Rick Jeanerette’s “These guys are good—scary good” seems to apply.

But only if they play the whole game.