If you missed Friday night’s game between the Buffalo Sabres and the Florida Panthers, here is the only thing you missed:
That game winning goal from Jason Pominville happened at the 2:19 mark of overtime to give the Sabres a 2-1 victory. The rest of the game was a game between the blue lines. The Sabres and Panthers combined for a total of 43 shots on goal over 62:19, which includes a stretch of time, starting at 10:13 in the second period to the end of the third period, where the Sabres had a total of three shots on goal.
The Sabres did get on the board first as Derek Roy got the scoring started at the 17:50 mark of the first period. The play started with a good heads up play from Brayden McNabb who soccer kicked the puck to Tyler Ennis after his stick broke. Ennis worked the puck to Stafford who found Roy coming up the center of the ice untouched and Roy finished it from there.
The Panthers lone goal came in the second period when the Sabres were down two men after Christian Ehrhoff took a roughing call and Jochen Hecht took a holding call. Fourteen seconds into the five on three powerplay, Jason Garrison rifled a shot over Miller’s glove to give the Panthers their only goal of the night. The goal was Garrison’s ninth of the season and also his shortest shot, 35 feet, of the season that resulted in a goal.
– The Sabres injury epidemic continues with two more forwards going down during this game. Corey Tropp left the game in the first period with a head injury after taking a hit from Dmitri Kulikov, the same guy who took out Derek Roy last season. Jochen Hecht left the game late in the third period after blocking a shot in the lower body region. The Sabres will get Ville Leino back from suspension on Saturday, but may need to call up another forward from Rochester if Hecht and Tropp both can’t go.
– Jason Pominville’s overtime goal, his third in his career, put him at sixth most on the franchise list, tied with Donald Audette and Dixon Ward. Pominville also has 27 career points against the Panthers in 26 career games and has registered a point in each of the last six games against the Panthers.
– It seems that every game we are talking about the play of another rookie making an impact in the lineup. On Friday night, it was the play of Brayden McNabb that stood out. Besides making the soccer kick to start the Derek Roy goal, McNabb’s had two takeaways on the night and played a total of 16:54 on the night,
The Sabres will try and build a home winning streak as they take on the New York Rangers on Saturday night.