The Buffalo Sabres came out and played one of their best home games of the season and a stretch of 1:06 sinks the game for the Sabres. Radim Vrbata scores the tying goal of the game at the 8:35 mark of the period and 1:06 later Paul Bissonnette scores his 5th goal of the season to give the Coyotes a 3-2 lead. That was that the Coyotes needed to defeat the Sabres 4-2.
Most Sabres fans are not going to feel this way, but the Sabres played a solid home game as they had a good handful of scoring chances and just ran into a hot goaltender. Dave is probably going to corroborate this feeling with his scoring chances post as the Sabres were able to generate quality scoring chances, especially in the first period, but they just couldn’t capitalize on those chances. The Sabres had 45 shots on net, compared to the Coyotes 29 shots on net.
The Coyotes took the lead in the first period as Shane Doan ripped a shot from just before the left faceoff dot that beat Enroth on the blocker side and tucked under the top left corner of the net. The Sabres were able to tie it up in the first period as Luke Adam was able to score his sixth goal of the season by tipping in a Jordon Leopold shot in front of the net.
In the second period, the Sabres were able to get the lead within the first minute of the second period as Patrick Kaleta was able to find the loose puck in the crease and just roofed it into the net. Then Vrbata and Bissonnette scored and that was all she wrote for the Sabres. Vrbata scored his second goal of the game late in the third after the Sabres pulled the goaltender.
Some player specific thoughts after the jump
– Tyler Myers left the game at the end of the second period with what is being reported as an upper-body injury. The status of the injury isn’t known yet and he will be evaluated again on Sunday. In the third period, the Sabres rotated their last five remaining defensemen.
– Drew Stafford did not have a good night on the ice. He was on the ice for three goals against the also had two giveaways on the night. Stafford is streaking on the wrong side again for this season. After having three assists against the Senators on November 11th, Stafford has only registered one assist in the last five games.
– Patrick Kaleta really did have a good game as he scored a goal, led the team with four hits and even had three shots on goal. This was Kaleta’s first goal since October 27th against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Kaleta now has two goals on four career shots against the Phoenix Coyotes.
The Sabres will have three days off before their retribution game against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night.