Two Boston University Terriers chased the Toronto Maple Leafs to their bus on Tuesday night.
Jack Eichel and Evan Rodrigues, teammates at BU last season, powered Buffalo's offense in the 4-0 home win.
Eichel scored on a shorthanded breakaway. Rodrigues scored two goals of his own to pace the Sabres past their most hated rivals from up the Queensway.
Matt Moulson scored Buffalo's other goal.
The Sabres are now 4-1 in the exhibition season. They travel to Minneapolis to play the Wild on Thursday night. Columbus travels to Buffalo Friday night for the preseason finale.
In five preseason games, the Sabres have scored an NHL high 21 goals. Amazingly, the Sabres special teams have scored 5 shorthanded goals and 4 power play goals in their five exhibition games. 12 even strength goals to boot.
I asked Matt Moulson what he attributes the shorthanded goal success on.
"When we play our skill players like Jack, Evander, Enzo on the penalty kill, it hopefully creates doubt in the minds of the power play units. Just a little hesitation on their power play can give us a scoring opportunity"
Wow. Just wow. What a far cry from the mess that was the past two seasons of the tank.
Thanks, Sabres.com
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Sabres Jack Eichel celebrate his goal. @TheBuffaloNews @BNHarrington @PegulaSE @amymoritz @BuffaloSabres @TBNSports pic.twitter.com/QSXtqXaqgi
— Harry Scull Jr (@hsjrphoto) September 29, 2015
I am so glad that I am in the building right now to watch Jack Eichel and the Sabres play the Leafs.
Eichel just scored his second shorthanded goal of the preseason on a spectacularly gorgeous breakaway.
Some alternate angles on Eichel's SH breakaway goal. https://t.co/ufWcz2vpDy
— Connor Nielen (@ConnorNielen) September 29, 2015
After Eichel's goal, the barn erupted in such a way that reminded me of the 2006 and 2007 glory years. The crowd noise could have easily exceeded 120 Dbs. All things old are new again!
What makes Eichel's shorty all the more noteworthy is that it shut the mouths of the thousands of Leafs fans in the house. Leafs wish that they had a superstar like Eichel, and Reinhart, Kane, O'Reilly, Ristolainen, and others for that matter.
Oh, how I love to watch the Leafs get raked by an 18 year old magician who has more sorcery in his twig than Harry Potter!
This freak show could have been yours, Mike Babcock. You chose Toronto over Eichel and Buffalo. Regrets much?
It's great to have that old spirit back in the arena. It's a helluva lot better than listening to Sabres fans cheer for the opponent scoring on the Sabres.
I have been watching this kid up close since July and I am at a loss for words to describe how uniquely blessed he is. Every time I watch him live, he shows me some other awesome dimension to his all-world skill set. It's a treat to watch him play hockey.
The Sabres now have 5, count 'em 5 shorthanded goals in their 5 preseason games played in the past 8 days.