After a slow start to the season, the Sabres are starting to play some really fun hockey. Unfortunately, fun hockey isn’t always winning hockey, but the Sabres did manage to stage a third period comeback and earned a loser point tonight, falling 5-4 to the Detroit Red Wings in the shootout.
The scoring started early, as the Sabres allowed a goal just ninety seconds in to the game to Tomas Tatar and made you think, “Here we go again”, but the team managed to stabilize things a bit coming out of the opening frame, facing a 2-1 deficit thanks to an Evander Kane goal.
The second period was mostly dominated by Detroit, who accumulated a whopping 20 shots to the Sabres nine. Despite the shot discrepancy, both teams scored in the second – Drew Miller’s first of the season for Detroit, and Zemgus Girgensons on a nice power play deflection for the Sabres, and Buffalo would enter the third trailing by one.
The Sabres would manage to take the lead thanks to another Kane goal, this one on the power play, and Zach Bogosian’s first of the season, but the Wings tied the game on a power play of their own. After a wild and crazy overtime that saw the Sabres go on a 4-on-3 power play, Brad Richards would score the shootout winner to give the Wings a 5-4 victory.
There were two major stories in this game: the shot totals and Rasmus Ristolainen. The Wings outshot the Sabres 46-32 thanks to that monster second, but both teams played a fun, up and down game that was a blast to watch. As for Ristolainen, he assisted on every one of the Sabres four goals (UPDATE: Nope, the NHL took one away because CONSPIRACY) while leading all skaters with 27:55 of ice time. Risto now has 17 points on the season (he had 20 all of last year) which could vault him into the top 10 scoring defenseman in the NHL this season, depending on tonight’s results.
Three Questions
1. Can the Sabres keep the Red Wings power play powerless?
The Red Wings scored the game tying goal in the third period on the power play, which really seemed to take the air out of the Sabres.
2. Will Detroit turn around their third period woes?
They would not, and the Sabres scored two goals in the third to take the game to overtime.
3. Can the Sabres score four or more for the third game in a row?
Yes they can, but unfortunately tonight it just wasn’t enough.
Comment of the Game
This Ristolainen kid
Is making himself some ca$h for next season
Highlights
Coming soon.