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Sabres vs. Canadiens Recap: Enroth Still Stays Perfect On The Season

After all of the talk that the Sabres were soft and didn’t have a proper response to Boston’s Milan Lucic hit on Ryan Miller, how did the Sabres come out of the gate and respond? They didn’t get a shot on goal for the first 15 minutes and looked rather lethargic on the ice. Slowly but surely though, the Sabres found their legs and found their game as well as the Sabres defeated the Canadiens 3-2 in a shootout.

After a scoreless first period, the Canadiens were able to get a 2-0 lead in the second period with Erik Cole scoring on the power play early in the period and Max Pacioretty scoring at even strength. After that point, the Sabres still had created some chances and had closed the early gap in shots down to 20-19 Montreal at the end of the second period.

The third period saw the Sabres have some jump and close the two goal gap pretty quickly as Jason Pominville scores on a one-timer within the first minute of the third period. Derek Roy was able to able to tie the game with 7:30 left in the game off a shot right in front of the net.

The Sabres and Canadiens able to get the game to a shootout and that’s where it seems that goaltender Jhonas Enroth excels. The Sabres were able to score with their first two shooters, Thomas Vanek and Brad Boyes, and Enroth was able to make a save on Tomas Plekanec and Brian Gionta to get the Sabres the extra point.

Some specific player thoughts after the jump

– I have to admit, I’ve been able to miss the last couple Versus games due to being in the building for them. Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury were particularly insufferable deriding the Sabres for not being more physical in their response after the Bruins game. The Sabres did outhit the Canadiens 28-22 and while they didn’t go all Slap Shot on the Canadiens, they were able to actually win the game.

Tyler Myers was benched for the first time in his career for Mike Weber and Weber was able to actually rebound from his last performance a couple of weeks ago. Weber finished with a -1 and six hits which the latter was second on the team behind Gaustad’s seven hits.

– Speaking of Gaustad, he seemed to cross the line more often than normal with three minor penalties in the game. Only one of the penalties actually hurt the Sabres, it lead to the Cole power play goal. Gaustad is usually an aggressive player, but it seemed that tonight he allowed the aggression to get the best of him.

The Sabres will head back home to face off against the Devils on Wednesday night which will be on Versus again.