The Western Conference leading Dallas Stars continued to pile up points as they downed the Buffalo Sabres 3-1 at First Niagara Center on Tuesday night. With the win, Dallas raised its record to 15-4-0. The Stars are 6-2-0 for the month of November, with both losses coming at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
On Tuesday night, Dallas grabbed a 1-0 lead just 51 seconds after the start of the game on an alert play by Valeri Nichushkin to score his second goal of the season. The narrow lead held until Jason Spezza doubled it at 7:35 of the third period with a tip-in goal for his seventh goal of the season. The Stars barely held off a late Buffalo charge before Tyler Seguin sealed the 3-1 win with empty net tally for his 10th goal of the season.
Antti Niemi stopped 24 of 25 shots to earn the win. Linus Ullmark made 26 saves on 28 shots in a losing cause.
Buffalo nearly managed to secure at least one point from the game. Ryan O'Reilly scored a power play goal with 6:57 left in the third period to cut the gap to 2-1. With 6:15 remaining, the Sabres appeared to have tied the game on a Sam Reinhart power play goal but Dallas challenged on the on-ice ruling on the basis of the playing offside at the blueline. After reviewing the play, the on-ice officials reversed the initial onside call and disallowed the subsequent goal.
After the game, Dallas head coach Lindy Ruff told the attenting media that the offside by Sabres' forward Tyler Ennis was immediately spotted by players and coaches on the bench and very quickly confirmed by video eye-in-the-sky Kelly Forbes. The Stars were confident of a reversed ruling before Ruff summoned the officials to issue the challenge. Likewise, Buffalo head coach Dan Bylsma also expected the reversal because he also realized the play was offside at it developed.
The Stars, who finished the night 2-for-3 on the penalty kill, ultimately survived the rest of the penalty unscathed. Dallas went 0-for-1 on the power play.
On the opening goal, Nichushkin patiently waited out the Sabres rather than forcing the play (which he had been doing for much of the early season). Nichushin deked, moved to an open area and then calmly deposited a backhander in the net past Ullmark.
Spezza's goal initially looked like it had been scored by defenseman Alex Goligoski on an open look from the slot. It turned out that Spezza tipped the puck into the net, which was way the puck went in despite Goligoski not quite hitting the area where he seemed to be trying to shoot.
On O'Reilly's goal for Buffalo, the goal-scorer took a feed from defenseman Cody Franson and then blasted a slap shot between Niemi's pads through a Reinhart screen. The goalie never saw the puck.
Both teams got a player back on the lineup in their return from injury. Buffalo shutdown defenseman Zach Bogosian finally played his first game of the season. Dallas forward Patrick Eaves returned to the Stars' lineup after a 13-game absence.
The Stars return to action on Thursday. The club wraps up its two-game road trip with a tilt against the Washington Capitals in a game with the potential for some offensive fireworks.