Tonight looked like a tough matchup for the Buffalo Sabres against the Boston Bruins. The Bruins came into the game off a tough loss last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. They also had their big new acquisition Rick Nash in the lineup.
To the Sabres credit, they jumped on the Bruins in the first period. Benoit Pouliot got the scoring started. He picked up a rebound from a Victor Antipin shot for his 12th of the season.
Just over two minutes later Kyle Okposo increased the lead to 2-0 on a nice shot over the glove of Anton Khudobin with the man advantage.
The Bruins looked out of sync for most of the period and didn’t bring the energy early that was expected with the days’ events. Buffalo took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
The visitors brought the pressure in the second period. The Bruins got on the board three minutes into the middle frame. After Chad Johnson makes a great save on David Pastrnak. He can’t get back across to stop Charlie McAvoy.
They continued to pressure after the goal but couldn’t get the puck by Johnson.
The Sabres got their two-goal lead back in the middle of the period. Evan Rodrigues put a rocket over the shoulder of Khudobin for his fifth of the season.
From that point on it was all Bruins. They ended the period on a 12-1 shot run. Including a stretch where the Sabres were stuck in their own zone for over two minutes. Again, Johnson was up to the task. Allowing the Sabres to lead 3-1 after 40 minutes.
The Sabres put the Bruins away in the third period. They had the quicker legs and controlled most of the period. Marco Scandella caught Khudobin sleeping early in the third to increase the lead to 4-1.
The shot totals for the period were 11-10 in favor of the Bruins. However, most of the shots came in the final few minutes on a Bruins power play.
With the win tonight the Sabres break their struggles in games with a start time prior to 7 pm EST. They’re now 1-6-1 in those games this season.
Onto deadline day. We’ll see what tonight and tomorrow brings.
Final Score: Sabres 4, Bruins 1
Shots on Goal: Sabres 24 | Bruins 35
Sabres Goal Scorers: Pouliot (12), Okposo (11), Rodrigues (5) and Scandella (4)
Bruins Goal Scorers: McAvoy (6)
Three Stars of the Game
1. Chad Johnson (34 saves on 35 shots)
2. Evan Rodrigues (1 G, 1 A)
3. Victor Antipin (2 A)
Comment of the Game
Consider this — Rodrigues vs. Vesey
I believe ER is at 15 points (5 goals, 10 assists based on his 1-1—2 today) in 34 games.
Vesey is 11-7—18 in 58 games.
While I still think Vesey would have been an excellent left wing for Jack Eichel, I not missing him that much with the emergence of ER.
Tim Murray deserves credit for the ER signing.
by skan3915 on Feb 25, 2018 | 6:28 PM reply rec (3) flag actions