Panthers vs. Sabres Recap: Sabres Take First Of Back To Back Home Games

The Buffalo Sabres take the first of their back to back home games this weekend as they defeated the Florida Panthers 4-2 on Friday night. Drew Stafford hadn't scored in the last six games, but may have found his groove back with two goals against the Panthers, one goal in the second period and the other goal in the third period.

Jason Pominville got the scoring started with a goal that as Dave Oleksy put it as "dirty." Pominville found a rebound after Thomas Vanek was bowled into Tomas Vokoun by a Panther defenseman. The Panthers tied it up three minutes on a Sergei Samsonov shot that was created by a bad Tyler Myers giveaway. 

Drew Stafford scored in the second period to give the Sabres a 2-1 lead that would eventually be enough for the Sabres to secure victory. In the third period, Jordon Leopold scored on the powerplay and Drew Stafford scored 13 seconds later to put the Sabres up 4-1. Evgeni Dadonov put a goal in with three seconds left in the game to ultimately make the game 4-2. 

News, notes and highlights after the jump

- The Sabres outshot the Panthers 32-24 which gives the Sabres their 43rd game this season in which they have outshot the opponent. The team is 18-19-6 when they outshoot their opponent and 18-9-3 when they are outshot. 

- Tyler Ennis had two assists on the night which gives him 9 points in his last eight games and three multi point games during that stretch. Ennis is quietly crawling up the rookie scoring list, one point behind Michael Grabner and three points behind Logan Couture. 

- Ryan Miller made 22 saves on the night while Tomas Vokoun had 28 saves in the losing effort. 

The Sabres will take on the Devils, who lost to the Penguins tonight in a shootout, on Saturday to finish out the home back-to-back series. If you missed the game, here are the highlights: