Goals
1st Period: Cody Hodgson deflected a Christian Ehrhoff shot in off of his arm. That’s a bruise that will feel good in the morning.
2nd Period: Jason Pominville scored on a beautiful line goal. Thomas Vanek shoved his man off the puck (I know!) and streaked down the wing, Cody Hodgson hustled to the center of the ice to take out the lone defenseman, and Vanek fed Pominville, who scored on his typical shootout five-hole snap shot.
3rd Period: The Leafs scored on a nice play by Kadri, and poor play by Myers on the penalty kill.
Sabres PK Shines
The Sabres took three penalties in a span of about four minutes in the first period, and had to kill off two consecutive 5-on-3’s, which they managed to do despite only clearing the puck twice (and once on a fanned Toronto shot). They say the goalie is your best penalty killer, and Ryan Miller was, though he got some help from his friend Mr. Post, and a few more quick whistles. Still, it was a great way to end the first period, and to hold Toronto at 0-4 on the power play with 11 shots was impressive.
Later in the game, they killed off another (short) 4-on-3 and a 6-on-4 at the end of the game, and overall finished a solid 6-for-7 on the PK.
Miller Time
Ryan Miller was the Sabres best player all night, making a number of solid and above-solid saves in a 34-save performance. He was the beneficiary of two posts, and two more goals getting waived off, making for four on the season. That will certainly help the ol’ GAA.
John Scott Smash, Foligno Fight, Kaleta Kollision
Sabres fans finally got to see Big John Scott fight, and though he didn’t dominate, he landed some absolutely mammoth punches. I doubt he’ll rarely, if ever, see more than five or six minutes of ice time, but if he can do that a few more times this season, he’ll certainly make the Sabres tougher to play against.
Marcus Foligno got in to a scrap of his own, and performed admirably, while Patrick Kaleta immediately responded to a Phil Kessel bump of Ryan Miller by repeatedly cross-checking Kessel in the head. For these events, the Sabres earned the “Sandpaper +1” perk.
Comment of the Game
The Sabres have given up more disallowed goals then allowed goals.
-Ubiquitous2