What do you get when you have the league’s best offense playing on the second night of a back to back situation and an offense that still struggles to find the back of the net most nights? A game which features its first goal with 10:08 left in the game and only two goals total. The Sabres held the Lightning scoreless for the first 50 minutes of the game and held strong on their way to a 2-1 shootout victory over the Lightning on Tuesday night.
The first and second periods saw two vastly different teams come out on the ice. The Lightning only managed two shots on goal in the first 20 minutes of play, came out in the second period flying, and finished the period with 16 shots on goal. Goaltender Jhonas Enroth was up for the challenge on the all of those shots as the game stayed scoreless through two periods.
The third period saw the first scoring of the game as the Lightning took the lead with 10:08 remaining when Ondrej Palat scored his seventh goal of the season. Tyler Johnson threw the puck at the net where glanced off the heel of Enroth’s stick and right on Palat’s where he had a wide open net. The Lightning lead would only last six minutes though as Zemgus Girgensons would find the net off an interesting set of bounces that saw goaltender Evgeni Nabokov flailing on the ice trying to save the puck. A scoreless overtime led to a shootout that saw just two scores from Cody Hodgson and Tyler Ennis and the Sabres winning their sixth game in their last seven.
The Sabres will travel to Tampa on Thursday to complete the second half of this back to back series.
Three Questions Answered
1.) How will the Sabres fare against Evgeni Nabokov?
The Sabres weren’t able to muster much offense on Nabokov with only 22 shots on goal, but we’re able to find the back of the net once and came away with a win.
2.) How would Jhonas Enroth hold up?
Enroth played another spectacular game, making 26 saves in the winning effort. Enroth hasn’t played this well in a stretch of games since the stretch run of the 2011-2012 season.
3.) Will Matt Moulson score tonight?
My shot in the dark didn’t pay off as Moulson was held off the scoresheet.
Comment of the Night
During the first half of a rather uneventful game, AcesNines gets philosophical about soup
I’ve discovered a few things about myself.
A.) I love soup.
B.) Soup is cheap.
C.) I am broke.
D.) Eating soup while watching hockey while it’s snowing is kind of magical, actually.