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Boston Bruins vs. Buffalo Sabres Recap: That Was A Statement Game If I Ever Saw One

The Buffalo Sabres have now picked up nine points in their last ten games and picked up the last two points in impressive style against the Boston Bruins. A 6-0 victory that saw the Sabres completing crisp passes and the Bruins chasing players around to make sure they paid the price.

With the way the game started, it seemed like it was going to be the same old Bruins/Sabres contest, with the Bruins dominating the pace of the game early. Just like that though, the Sabres had a 1-0 lead after Christian Ehrhoff got the scoring started at the six minute mark of the period with a wrist shot that went over the glove. From then on, the Sabres seemed more comfortable and they continued to dominate the game. The Sabres second goal came from Jason Pominville, his first of two goals on the night, at the 14:49 mark of the period. The Sabres even got a break as a Bruins goal was called back due to incidental contact with the goaltender.

The second period started much like the first, a fluky goal off the post for Tyler Ennis and just like that, Tuukka Rask was pulled at the 1:52 mark of the second period. Rask made a total of seven saves on 10 shots and Tim Thomas came in to clean up the rest of the game. Thomas made some good saves and was saved by the post a couple of times in the Sabres first power play of the period, but ultimately gave up his first goal of the game at the 18:11 mark of the period to Patrick Kaleta.

The third period saw the Sabres continue to keep the foot on the pedal and they found two more goals, the first from Jason Pominville at the 1:18 mark of the period and the second from Drew Stafford in garbage time. Tim Thomas finished the night with 16 saves on 19 shots in his 38:08 of work.

More Sabres thoughts after the jump.

Ryan Miller quietly played another solid game, garnering him his third shutout of the season. Miller made 36 saves on the night, 17 of which came in the third period, and looked every bit as the goaltender that Sabres fans have been wanting to see all season.

The Sabres played a complete all-around game against the Bruins and even held their own slightly in the physicality department. There were three fights in the game, two in the first period and one in the second period. Boston’s Shawn Thornton was behind two of them, fighting Cody McCormick early in the first period and then finding Mike Weber late in the second period. The last fight saw Milan Lucic ragdoll Patrick Kaleta for a few seconds.

There were only two Sabres that finished at even, Cody McCormick and Matt Ellis, and five players that finished with a team high +3. The Sabres scoring was spread pretty evenly with 11 players registering at least one point. Both Andrej Sekera and Ville Leino had two assists and Leino played his most impressive game as a Sabre this season with a nifty spin-o-rama pass that found Pominville on the second goal.

The Sabres will hope to ride this momentum into a winning streak that can see them possibly sniff the playoff race. It is still a tall order, but with seven of their next eight games being played at home, the team can get on some sort of a run. They face the Dallas Stars on Friday night to continue the streak.