Sabres outlast Islanders

Five different Sabres scored goals as the Sabres beat the visiting NY Islanders 5-3 at HSBC Arena.  Nolan Pratt scored his first goal as a Buffalo Sabre to lead off the scoring 8:43 into the first period.  The firts period was high energy but the story was goaltending as Miller made 14 saves for Buffalo and Dipietro made 15 saves for the Islanders.  The score at the end of one period was 1-0 in favor of Buffalo despite numerous offensive chances.

The Sabres built a 3-0 lead five minutes into the second period on goals by Lydman and Kotalik.  Instead of trying to maintain their three goal lead the Sabres started taking penalties and Miro Satan got the Islanders on the board while Nathan Paetsch and Paul Gaustad were in the box.  The teams traded goals to close out the period and Buffalo maintained a two goal lead after two periods of play.

Mike Sillinger pulled the Islanders within one goal four minutes into the third with his seventh goal of the season.  Just over four minutes later Jochen Hecht flipped a harmless backhander at Dipietro and somehow it got by him to put the Sabres back up by two.  The Sabres were able to hold on to their two goal lead in a sloppy third period by both teams.  It was the second consecutive game the Sabres managed to get over 40 shots on goal, although this time they scored five instead of the one they scored on Monday.

The Sabres managed a 5-3 victory despite playing poorly at times and experiencing numerous giveaways.  They probably played better on Monday night than they did tonight but with a completely different result.  I'll be interested to see what people say about tonights game in comparison to the game Monday because many people look only at the score instead of the play on the ice.

The next game for the Sabres will be on Friday night against the Capitals in the Nations Capital.  Faceoff is slated for 7PM and the game can be seen on MSG.