Buffalo Sabres: The New Cardiac Kids?

Back in the '90s, the Buffalo Bills were known for their last minute, come from behind heroics.  They were nicknamed the Cardiac Kids. And Buffalo both loved and hated them for it. 

It appears the Buffalo Sabres have decided to follow a similar track lately.  Three games, three come from behind victories.

Thursday night, the Sabres travelled to Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota to face the undefeated Wild. 

A rather uneventful first period saw no penalties, and even shots: 10 for the Wild and nine for Buffalo.  Drew Stafford scored about 15 minutes into the first period on a beautiful shot after receiving a pass from Derek Roy. He faked the forehand shot, and flipped a backhander over the top of goalie Niklas Backstrom.

The game got ugly after that.  Minnesota outshot the Sabres 15-9 in the second period, and capitalized on two of those shots.  Benoit Pouliot scored 10 minutes in.  Miller stopped Pouliot on the initial shot, but was unable to get in front of the rebound.  Five minutes later, Stephane Veilleux buried one in the net, going top shelf with Miller out of position. 

The Wild led by a score of 2-1 after two periods.

The third period started out with a terrible mistake by Miller; putting the puck in his own net.

A carryover penalty on Jaroslav Spacek had the Sabres starting out shorthanded in the third period.  Out near the left circle, Miller was attempting to clear the puck from an oncoming Brent Burns, when he accidentally backhanded the puck into his own net. 

The Sabres were down by a score of 3-1, and not looking very good.  The Wild, it appeared, were on their way to another win.

However, Adam Mair, with exactly four minutes to play in the third period, deflected a shot from Nathan Paetsch past Backstrom and, just 46 seconds later, Thomas Vanek deciding that one game without a goal was enough, flipped one past Backstrom from the left point. 

In overtime, it didn't take Derek Roy long to score his first goal of the season.  Just 44 seconds in, he fired a wrister past Backstrom to end the game.

Despite being outshot and essentially outplayed, the Buffalo Sabres managed to pull another one out, and win in overtime.   And as exciting as it is to watch, the Buffalo Sabres can't expect to make the playoffs if they can't play an entire 60 minutes of hockey.  Come from behind victories are often dependent on lucky breaks and fluky goals—and those don't happen every game.

Other Notes: Lindy Ruff has told Ryan Miller, laughingly, that he'll have to buy dinner for the whole team every time he scores...Nathan Paetsch played 14:24, had an assist and an even plus/minus in his first game this season...Tim Connolly, Jochen Hecht, and Craig Rivet did not play—all with injuries.