Senators-Sabres: Ottawa Beats Buffalo 3-2 in Shoot-Out

After a great win over Montreal on Friday night, the Sabres travelled to Hamilton to face the struggling Ottawa Senators. The Sabres seemed to be jelling. They had moved into a tie with Philadelphia for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.  

Surely they could beat the Senators, who were playing so badly they had fired their coach. And it wouldn't be far-fetched to think that Philadelphia would lose to the first place Boston Bruins. The Sabres could be in fifth place at the end of the night.

But what if the Sabres underestimated the Senators? What happened if the 'bad' Sabres, the ones that don't skate hard or take the body, showed up in Ottawa? How demoralizing would it be to beat the Canadiens and then fall to the lowly Sens?

Sure enough, for the first two periods, it looked like that was what was happening. Buffalo exerted no pressure. Buffalo missed passes. Buffalo failed to take the body, allowing Ottawa to cycle the puck in the Sabre end of the ice as though they were on a power play.

Late in the period, the Sabres leading scorer, Thomas Vanek, had taken a hard shot in the face and had not returned after racing to the dressing room. Buffalo managed to skate off the ice after the first period with the score tied 0-0. But the way the Sabres were playing, it was just a matter of time.  

Halfway into the second, Adam Mair shoved Ottawa pest Jarkko Ruutu in the face and was called for roughing. A minute later, Ottawa's Nick Foligno, son of former Sabre great Mike Foligno, deflected a puck right in front of Miller and Ottawa led 1-0.

Seven minutes later, Tim Connolly made an ill-advised cross-ice pass at the Ottawa blue line. It was intercepted and Ottawa's Antoine Vermette took off for the Buffalo goal, ripping a short wrist shot under the cross bar.  

The referee initially ruled the shot had hit the post and was no goal, but video replay confirmed it had gone in and Ottawa led 2-0 at the end of the second period.  

Playing listlessly, down two goals, without Vanek, and playing their fifth game in eight nights, there wasn't much hope.  

But sure enough, just a minute into the third, as if to atone for their previous sins, Connolly snagged a loose puck at the Ottawa blue line and found Mair all alone in front. Mair coolly deflected Connolly's pass over Ottawa goalie Brian Elliot to bring Buffalo back within one.

Even more importantly, Mair's goal energized the Sabres. They began skating and soon enough Nick Foligno was called for tripping as he attempted to slow a Buffalo rush. Derek Roy led a Sabre power play into the Ottawa zone, spotted a streaking Drew Stafford to his right, and slid him the puck.  

Stafford was accelerating and took the pass in stride, bursting in alone on Elliot. After faking left to freeze the net-minder, Stafford pulled the puck back and shot it in, tying the game at 2-2.

Buffalo kept up the pressure for the remainder of the period with one hiccup, a penalty to Craig Rivet. But the Sabres killed that off and when the horn sounded with the score still tied at 2-2, there was a palpable sense of relief that the Sabres had at least earned a point when it looked like they had blown the game.

Both teams had excellent chances in overtime. The Spezza- Heatley-Alfredsson line, always deadly against Buffalo, buzzed around the Sabre net but were held at bay while Connolly engineered a great chance for Buffalo at the other end.  

With no score in overtime and the game headed to a shoot-out, Sabre fans couldn't be faulted for thinking their chances for earning the bonus point were good. Ryan Miller has been money in the bank for the Sabres during shoot-outs this year and Buffalo was facing in Elliot a rookie goaltender with only 11 NHL games under his belt.

When Miller stoned Heatley and Kotalik easily scored using his signature backhand move, the Sabres' chances looked even better. But then the pest Ruutu, who only has three goals all year, got Miller to go butterfly too soon and fired the puck over his spread-eagled pads.  

Not to worry, Stafford had already beaten Elliot like a drum, but Elliot made the save. When Alfredsson made a nice move to score, Ottawa led 2-1 and the pressure was on Tim Connolly to score or else. Connolly had been watching Kotalik and made a nearly identical move, backhanding home the tying goal.

In skated Mike Fischer, a good player, but not a feared goal scorer. Incredibly, he managed to slide the puck between Miller's legs, causing Miller to get visibly angry with himself. This time, the pressure was on Derek Roy's shoulders.

Roy had scored on his last two shoot-out attempts using a deke, but tonight he decided to shoot from what appeared to be farther out than is usual in shoot-outs. The puck sailed over the net and Ottawa had won.

Notes

After the game, the feeling in the Sabre locker room was one of satisfaction that at least they had earned a point, especially after being down 2-0 in the third.  

Both the players and Lindy Ruff said that even though the demanding schedule was something every team had to deal with and shouldn't be used as an excuse, it had been a tough stretch and they were weary.

Give them the benefit of the doubt. But their next game is not for three days, in Buffalo, against this same Ottawa team. They should be well rested. Anything less than a dominating effort will be unsatisfactory.

Hopefully, they will have Vanek back in the lineup. Ruff said that he had suffered a severe laceration to his jaw and would be evaluated later.