For the past five games, the Buffalo Sabres had exceeded all expectations, winning six of seven games with amazing goaltending and a red-hot top line. On Thursday night, however, their high-flying winnig streak finally took them too close to the sun, and boy did they crash back to Earth hard.
The Tampa Bay Lightning dominated the game over the hapless Sabres en route to a 5-0 victory. The night started poorly for Buffalo, when Radko Gudas tipped a shot past Jhonas Enroth within the first three minutes, and would only get worse as the Lightning poured three more goals in during the second period.
Things would somehow continue to turn for the worse in the third, when the Sabres found themselves hitting, fighting, and instigating with reckless abandon, and both teams would go on to rack up 106 combined penalty minutes. It was an ugly way to end a very ugly game that saw the Sabres crash back to reality as hard as they possibly could.
Sabres-Lightning third period: 106 penalty minutes, including four fights, six misconducts, five roughings and three slashes.
— John Vogl (@BuffNewsVogl) December 5, 2014
It was a classic Sabres performance, as they were outshot by a huge 35-13 margin and took six penalties, thought their PK was the lone bright spot last night not allowing a power play goal. The Sabres will try to right the ship against Floirda on Saturday, a team which just outshot the Blue Jackets 55-20.
Two Questions
1. Enroth has to come back to Earth at some point, right?
He sure did, giving up 5 goals on 35 shots. Expect Michal Neuvirth to get a start soon, giving Enroth some well-deserved rest.
2. Will the Girgensons train keep chugging along?
Not today, though he did get his name in the boxscore with a fight in the third period.
Comment of the Game
Hooray a shot!
Only took 16.5 minutes
The Sabres are BACK, baby.