It wasn’t always pretty – and with this team, it so rarely is – but when it was all said and done, the Buffalo Sabres earned their first home victory of the season 3-2 in a shootout versus the Detroit Red Wings.
One night after getting blown out by Pittsburgh, the Sabres came out with a much stronger effort against Detroit. While they were still outshot in all three periods, Buffalo hung tough through the first period, coming out with a scoreless tie. The Sabres would take the lead on a goal by Brian Flynn, who was in the right palce at the right time to bang home a rebound off of a Zemgus Girgensons chance. The Red Wings would tie things up in the second thanks to Tomas Tatar.
The third period looked a lot like many of the Sabres third period, in that they were dominated by the Wings, getting outshot 17-8, and once Pavel Datsyuk scored five minutes in, it looked like a typical Sabres loss. That is, until Chris Stewart put home his first goal of the year to tie the game at two.
The game would go o a shootout where Michal Neuvirth would stand tall, while Tyler Ennis and Zemgus Girgensons (now 3-6 lifetime in the shootout, all game winners) sealed the deal for the Sabres third win of the season. As an additional note, Rasmus Ristolainen played a career high 25:30 tonight,
The Sabres have a few days off, and will face the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday.