Buffalo bounce back to make it three wins in four games
Score: Sabres 5-3 Senators
Shots: BUF 32-28 OTT
Buffalo Sabres Goals: Peterka (13), Thompson (13,14), Krebs (3), Cozens (7)
Ottawa Senators Goals: Tarasenko (9), Giroux (11,12)
Plus 1: TAGE!
This is more like the Tage Thompson that we know and love. Wanting the puck, carrying it with intent, dangling with confidence and swinging those giant windmilling arms to propel one-timers at hapless goaltenders.
A game after he was held without a shot on goal against the Kraken, Thompson came to play today, and his two goals in two minutes immediately after a goalie change took the game away from the Sens. Anton Forsberg looked to have tweaked something late in the first period with the score at 1-1, but with Joonas Korpisalo still settling in between the pipes, Tage gave him a very warm welcome.
Tage carried the puck out of his own zone towards the boards, curled back in as he approached the Sens blue line and with the two defensemen still trying to work out who was going to challenge him the forward let fly a shot that went in between the pair and rang in off the iron, no chance for Korpisalo.
The goalie might have still been feeling sorry for himself when a couple of minutes later the Sabres were on the power play and the Sens let Tage get to the left dot before he unleashed another howitzer this time going in off the opposite post to make it 3-1, and basically game over. Kind of, more on that later.
Thompson did take a stick to the face later in the game and he went into the locker room to get some attention before returning to the game an getting applauded by the fans behind the bench. However he did go back to the locker room later and didn’t finish the game, though later Don Granato indicated he thought the forward was going to be fine.
Plus 2: Motivation
Maybe it’s playing against a hated enemy that brought out the bully in Buffalo. Or it’s coming up against an undisciplined team without an identity. Or the Sabres remembered that last season they were sometimes completely unplayable when they wore the goathead jersey. Whatever it was, tonight it worked.
Against the Kraken they came up against a red hot team that does the small things right, consistently, and fizzled out as the game went on. The Sens are slumping badly and one of the worst road teams in the league to boot, and the Sabres took advantage. The home side might have gotten lucky with Forsberg’s injury, but they also made sure they peppered Korpisalo who had given up three and five goals in his two previous starts, and has just two wins in his last ten starts.
Plus 3: Laying it on the line
Ryan Johnson – 6; Mattias Samuelsson, Connor Clifton – 3; Owen Power, Rasmus Dahlin, Erik Johnson – 2.
Those stats are blocked shots, 27 in all, and the Sabres’ highest of the season so far. It wasn’t just the defensemen either that got involved in the defensive effort, and therein lies the story of the season for the Sabres. Whenever the Buffalo Sabres play team defense, with the forwards getting involved on the forecheck, hunting the puck in unison and rocking their opponents on their heels, they end up winning.
Even Buffalo’s penalty kill got in the act, shutting out the Sens on all four opportunities and barely giving them a sniff of goal. After a good start to the season, the PK units have regressed badly, giving up ten goals in the last 31 times they’ve been shorthanded. Tonight though they were exceptional, pressing Ottawa high up the ice and disrupting the set-up, and then keeping active sticks in their own zone whenever the Sens looked like creating anything.
Minus 1: Putting teams away
It wouldn’t be a Sabres hockey game though if it was all one-sided, would it? After jumping out to a big lead against the same opponent in their first match-up of the season, Buffalo allowed Ottawa to narrow the gap to one goal before squeezing out a win via a late empty-netter. Tonight was more of the same.
The Sens leveled in a pretty even first period, and then got two more to make it close at 4-3. It wasn’t as if they did anything magical either to get those goals. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will feel he could have done better on at least a couple of those, but Ottawa was able to score only because Buffalo stopped doing all the things that had gotten them ahead to begin with.
It wasn’t anything new either, with failure to clear the puck out of the defensive zone giving Ottawa life especially in the third period. It wasn’t a full-scale turtle job, but it was close.
Final Thoughts
The Sabres won a game they should have won. No great shakes right?
But it is, it really is. Too often this season the Sabres have overcomplicated things especially when playing against an inferior opponent that allows them to have the puck and move it harmlessly side-to-side or resorting to shots from distance. Which is why it often catches the better teams by surprise when Buffalo can lay in ambush and rely on speed to score.
However, tonight wasn’t that. It might take Buffalo to embark on an Oilers-like nine game winning streak to get back into playoff contention, but this won’t hurt either. Getting five or six wins and points in a another couple out of every ten games could see an immediate improvement in fortunes.