Thomas Freakin Vanek !!
The Austrian Lippizanner Stallion punctuated an otherwise tightly contested game with the "slapper heard round the world".
Sabres 3. Montreal 2.
Vanek opted to blast a slapper at Huet from the hashmarks, rather than take his chances skating and deking.
Good call, Tom.
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"With Tomas, there's nothing that surprises me," Ruff said. "I thought he might have faked it, but I've seen other guys in the league do it, and I think the odd time it catches the goalie a little bit off guard. It was a terrific shot, and in the right spot.
"He's a very skilled guy and I wasn't expecting that," Huet said. "I think he wanted me to go down, but he let it go."
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Huet, who made 31 saves. Ryan Miller made 31 saves.
This game was tigher than a witches' left ear.
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Here's hoping that Sheldon Souray is ok. There shpould be no secret that this blogger is a HUGE fan of Souray. It appeared as though Souray jacked up his wrist on a hit by Paul Gaustad.
"Hopefully, (Sunday) will just be a treatment day for him and he'll come back on Tuesday, but if not, somebody else will replace him," Carbonneau said.
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"From a structure standpoint, our game was so much better than it was the other night," Ruff said.
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Montreal went 2-for-4 with the man advantage and successfully killed each of Buffalo's five power plays. The Sabres have scored just three times in 41 chances.
"They won the special-teams battle. You've got to give them a lot of credit for that," Ruff said. "Their penalty killing has been very good, their power play, with Souray shooting the puck, has been very dangerous, so I like the way that team's playing. They're a tough team to play against and you can see why they've won as many games as they have. They're on top of a lot of parts of their game."
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R-E-S-P-E-C-T !!
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Buffalo D Ice time breakdown:
LYDMAN, TONI E 24:15
SPACEK, JAROSLAV +1 26:10
SEKERA, ANDREJ E 6:10
KALININ, DMITRI E 26:55
CAMPBELL, BRIAN +2 30:21
PAETSCH, NATHAN +1 11:58
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ROY, DEREK +1 22:21
KOTALIK E 14:37
NOVOTNY 1 13:51
MAIR E 4:02
DRURY E 17:54
VANEK +1 16:52
GAUSTAD E 10:57 POMINVILLE E 9:36
BRIERE E 21:30
HECHT E 22:50
AFINOGENOV +2 18:49 PETERS E 3:03
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