The Buffalo Sabres finished off their five game homestand with a moderate bang against the Calgary Flames on Friday night. Drew Stafford and Nathan Gerbe each scored and Jhonas Enroth made 29 saves in the Sabres 2-1 victory. This now puts the Sabres at 7-5 on the season and 2-4 at the First Niagara Center.
This is probably the best game the Sabres have played at home with Buffalo actually playing for a full sixty minutes and the team had 44 shots on net and outshot the Flames by 14 shots in the game and 18-8 in the first period. The offense was consistently spread out across the whole roster with only Andrej Sekera not registering a shot on goal in the game. The Drew Stafford/Ville Leino/Derek Roy line produced six shots on net and looked like the best offensive line of the night. Stafford and Roy registered their first points in seven games on Stafford’s goal.
For the Calgary Flames, they still haven’t won a game inside the First Niagara Center, or the previous incarnation known as the HSBC Arena. Their last victory in Buffalo came on March 15, 1996. Henrik Karlsson was the best player for the Flames as he made forty saves in the loss. This game could have gotten out of hand very quickly if it wasn’t for the saves that Karlsson made in the first period. Even with the good game from Karlsson, it was still a loss for the Flames and Henrik’s comments after the game reflected that. “We just have to take those points and it’s frustrating right now but I think that I can take something good from this game and keep working hard but right now it’s real disappointing.”
His coach Brent Sutter was pleased with Karlsson’s performance and the development of the young goaltender. “It’s certainly encouraging the way that he is playing and we have no problem at putting him in net and playing for us and doing a good job for us and he has proven again tonight he can do it.”
The Buffalo Sabres are going to turn around again and travel to Ottawa to face the Senators who lost to the Montreal Canadiens on Friday.