Sabres Blow Two Goal Lead In Last Two Minutes, Defeat Isles 4-3 In Shoot-Out

The Sabres beat the Islanders tonight and winning is a lot better than losing, but this game is hardly one the Sabres can feel good about.

For the third time in the last four games, Buffalo gave up the lead in the third period. Leading 3-1 with 2:45 to play, Clarke MacArthur took a stupid penalty in center ice.  The Islanders pulled their goalie to get a two man advantage and within a minute, the Islanders scored to close to 3-2.

With a minute left, the Isles pulled goalie MacDonald again.  At this point, the Sabres totally panicked, slapping the puck around, making no attempt at control, and finally icing it with about twenty seconds left.  

The Isles controlled the face off and after a further mad scramble with Sabres falling all over themselves, Chris Campoli found himself with the puck about 15 feet out in front of the Sabre goal and calmly drilled it in the top right hand corner just out of reach of Miller's glove to tie the game with just two seconds left.

Lindy Ruff was visibly displeased at his team's collapse and there was a palpable sense of dread at what might ensue if the Sabres went on to lose the game. Three minutes into overtime, an Islander tripped Vanek as he skated down the slot and the Sabres had a 4-3 power play.

Vanek lined up for the ensuing face-off, but Ruff called him off the ice, interestingly benching his leading scorer for the decisive last two minutes.   Without Vanek, the Sabre power play generated some nice chances, but Roy couldn't get the handle on a couple of loose rebounds and there was a tense moment when the Islanders had a dangerous two on one as the overtime period expired.

As the ice in front of the goals was resurfaced, the question hanging over the shoot-out was whether the Islanders second string goalie MacDonald might outshine Buffalo's multi-million dollar man Ryan Miller.  

Fortunately, Kotalik took some pressure off with his patented dipsy-doodle forehand fake to backhand roof job and Miller did a nice job playing the angles to stop the Isles Richard Park.  

Stafford made MacDonald look amateurish with a nifty forehand deke, and when Miller stuffed Kyle Okposo, the Sabres had managed to escape from what would have been a devastating loss with a shoot-out win and two points.

The Islanders are the worst team in the league so there should not be any chest-beating about this win.  The Sabres must be concerned about the continued disturbing trend of getting outplayed in the third period which cost them wins against better teams like Washington, Pittsburgh, and Montreal.

The heart of the problem is that the Sabres do not take care of the puck.  Their passes misfire too often, leading to turnovers.  How many times do we see the Sabres make a bad pass or mishandle the puck just as they are leaving their own zone?

With the Sabre forwards accelerating on the attack, these turnovers frequently give the opposition a dangerous chance.  And they are so unnecessary, more the result of laziness than anything else.  Take a few more strides to get past the blue line, take a little extra care to put that pass on your teammate's stick.

As the last three minutes of tonight's game evidenced, the Sabres have difficulty dealing with spirited pressure in their defensive zone.  When the forechecking gets heavy and the opposition starts cycling, the Sabres fail to take the body and start chasing the puck.

The defense has to be better.  For a veteran, Lydman gives away the puck and fails to take the body far too often.  Sekera is a poor man's Brian Campbell.  Like Campbell, he's not physical and a defensive liability but he doesn't have Campbell's speed to skate the puck out of the zone when in trouble or his offensive prowess.

There's no Seventh Cavalry on the horizon.  Rivet's return is still undetermined.   Darcy Regier has not shown much inclination over the years to add any mid-season help to push the team into the playoffs.

No, if the Sabres are going to turn it around, its going to be the players in their own locker room that are going to have to do it by playing tougher, harder, and better.

Tonight's game could have been a disaster.  Thankfully, it wasn't.  Let's hope it's a turning point.