Nice pregame "Hockey Fights Cancer" ceremony by the Sabres
*****
Per the script, both teams come out hard. Pucks deep, hammer the D.
****
23-9-21 take off on a 4 on 2 with Myres trailing and they dont get a shot on net.
****
Enroth nice save on Umberger.
***
Cody Bass head butts Pat kaleta in the face during a scrum. Classless. Both guys sits.
Just as they are paroled from the bin, Kaleta is jumped in the CBUS crease by Nash and Bass. Bass head locks Kaleta, rips his helmet off, the, Kaleta blasted Bass in the jaw with three heavy shots. PK scoop slams Bass to the ice on his back, for good measure.
TKO: Kaleta.
****
Buffalo PP
Aaron Johnson called for hooking. Here comes the 15th ranked PP vs. the 30th ranked PK.
Pommer busts up the gut, drop passes to Vanek, who goes cross box to Brad Boyes...
Pretty play. Great finish by Boyes.
PPG.
Sabres 1 for 1 on PP
****
Ah, what the Hell. Cody McCormick pounds Bass into submission with a flurry of jabs.
For as much of a tool as Bass has been in period one, he's demonstrating more passion and purpose than Nash, Umberger, Vermette, and the Jax "leaders".
Stick tap, Bass.
****
Period 2
2-0 Sabres
Luke Adam carries deep in CBUS zone, curls to the wall, finds his trailer Vanek, whose shot is saved by Mason. Terrible rebound control, puck squirts into low slot where Pommer taps it home.
Vinny Prospal throws a twisted wrister past Enroth.
****
Very erratic pace to the second period. Sabres not generating shots or chances, just like the Tampa and Carolina previous home losses.
****
Sabres take their foot off the gas after the Prospal goal. Lindy cannot be happy that his team has only generated 6 shots on Mason in second period.
***
Jax have taken 33 shots through 40 minutes. Jhonas has been stellar.
n first 40.
Too many turnovers for Sabres in first 40. Gotta clean it up.
*****
Period 3:
Buffalo playing with extreme caution here in the third period. Very few chances.
Trying to milk their one goal lead.
2-2
Fedor Tyutin is the beneficiary of a huge gift when Jason n Pominville makes a great sprawling back check, stick save. Puck laid in slot and Enroth whiffed on poke check.
Tyutin goal.
****
3-2 Buffalo
Moments later, 42-28-36 rip up the CBUS D with a ferocious fore check.
Gerbe to Goose to Kaleta.
PK needed that goal as a reward for his battles tonight.
****
4-2 Sabres
Back breaker.
Tyutin takes penalty with three minutes remaining.
Ehrhoff and Vanek find Pommer all alone on the door step. Tap in.
Ball Game.
Sabres first win on home ice.
Jhonas Enroth was full value, making 41 saves on 43 shots.
Tonight's the night that the Buffalo power play finally turns on the juice.
The Sabres PP are 1 for its last 17, and the Sabres enter tonight's game with a 16.9% success rate.
The Blue Jax PK is presently ranked dead last in the NHL at depressing 67.7% kill rate. They are ranked 30th because they've already allowed 10 PPGS against.
The CBUS PP is ranked 26th.
Buffalo's PK is ranked #3 at 92.9%.
On paper, it says that Sabres will dominate special teams.
Lets see what happens on the ice.
****
Admit it. You are a little put out by the news that one of your favourite former Philly Flyers will be in street clothes in Buffalo tonight.
Jeff Carter will not play tonight. Its his fifth consecutive game lost due to the fractured bone in his right foot.
****
Jax head coach, Scott Arniel, likes what he saw from his forwards on Tuesday night. The forwards got pucks deep and made the Red Wings D pay a physical price for handling the puck. Jax won the game 4-1, for their first win of the season. Look for the same M.O. tonight from Umberger and the Jax forwards.
The Buffalo D are big and mobile, and it will beehove them to retrieve pucks, and move them quickly and efficiently to the Buffalo forwards while they are on the move.
Lindy will want his forwards pounding the CBUS D in an attempt to turnover pucks and to create chances.
****
The Sabre snipers and muckers will want to focus on Jax goalie Steve Mason's left shoulder. The Mississauga native injured his wing in the first period of Tuesday night's game with the Red Wings. He had to leave the crease to seek treatment in the CBUS room. His back-up pinch hit for him. Mason later returned to his net to celebrate the win with his teammates. Mason made 30 of 31 saves.
I'd attack Mason's blocker side. If his left shoulder is sore, make him have to work it early and often.
*****
CBUS D, James Wizniewski, made his season debut vs. Detroit. He ate up 27 minutes of ice time in the process.
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