For the first forty minutes of last night's game, the Sabres seemed content to lay back and play a read and react game in Montreal. Their passive-aggressive nature put them in a 2-0 hole after 40 minutes. Were it not for Jhonas Enroth, the score could have easily been 3-0 or 4-0 after forty.
For a team that head been roundly criticized for their lack of response after Ryan Miller was cranked by Milan Lucic on Saturday night, you would have thought that Buffalo would come flying out of their room, looking to change the public perception and innuendo.
Didn't happen that way through two periods.
Then, Lindy Ruff did two key things in the early stages of the third period:
* He moved Derek Roy to the top line to centre Vanek and Pominville. Adam moved to the pivot for Stafford and Leino. Kaleta-Gaustad-Gerbe deserve honorable mention for their physical play and their dogged forecheck that wore down the Montreal D in the late going
* Ruff cut his forward rotation to three lines from four, in an effort to get his top 6 on the ice more in the final period. Ruff wanted goals, and he got them from this top unit of 26-9-29.
53 seconds into the third period, Jason Pominville's scorching one-timer cut the Montreal lead in half. Later, Roy would tie the games at 2s.
Vanek and Boyes scored in the Shootout.
Game over.
Buffalo earn 4 of 6 points vs. division foes in last three games.
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