The Buffalo Sabres scored early and scored more than once in the first period, but their usual game reared its ugly head again and they faltered down the stretch to another home regulation loss. The Sabres looked strong in the first minute of the game as the starting line of Matt Moulson, Tyler Ennis, and Drew Stafford kept the Jackets hemmed in their own zone and finally a streaking Tyler Myers converted a Matt Moulson pass to score. The Blue Jackets tied the game at the 6:19 mark of the first, but Drew Stafford scored just 33 seconds later to give the Sabres another lead.
The team’s penalty kill almost turned into the defining aspect of how the Sabres lost this game. The Blue Jackets tied the game late in the first period on a Matt Calvert even strength goal that was scored just one second after Tyler Myers came out of the box and then Brandon Dubinsky would give Columbus the lead in the second on the power play.
The third period of the game played out like you would expect a team that has a one goal lead that played the night before would play out. For most of the period Columbus plays the trap and the Sabres were held to just seven shots on goal in the period. The final shot though was a bullet from Tyler Myers that tied the game up with just 25 seconds left in the game. After trading chances in the overtime period, Ryan Johansen was the only shooter of the six that attempted to find the back of the net and gave Columbus the extra point.
Tyler Myers Adventurous 300th Career Game
Tyler Myers played in his 300th career game on Saturday night and it might have been one of his more active games in his short career. He got on the score sheet just 59 seconds into the game following up on some nice offensive zone pressure and cashing in an impressive Matt Moulson pass. He also took a boarding penalty that the league will probably take a look at again that led to the Blue Jackets second goal of the game. All of that came in just the first period alone.
The third period saw Myers come streaking in to almost the same spot, this time on the power play, to tie the game up for the Sabres. It’s the first time that Myers has had a multi point game since November 27th against Toronto and his first multi goal game since November 16, 2011 against the New Jersey Devils. He is also the first Sabres player to score in the first and last minute of a game since Paul Cyr did it on February 9, 1985. The last NHL player to do this was Milan Lucic on February 22, 2011.
The Sabres Special Teams Does Interesting Things
The aforementioned special teams was much to be desired on both ends of the rink. The Sabres penalty kill, which was ranked 13th in the league before Saturday night’s game, looked like it would have been the story of the night as they directly led to the final two goals the Blue Jackets scored. One was a power play goal and one happened the second the penalty was killed. However, the Sabres also scored a power play goal of their own in the closing seconds thanks to Tyler Myers, who was partly responsible for the earlier Columbus PP goals.