Sabres Fall Apart in 3rd, Fall to the Penguins 5-2

What a disappointing finish to a well played game by the Buffalo Sabres.  Aside from the final 9 minutes of the 3rd period, the Sabres played a near flawless game in their own end, and took what Lindy Ruff assuredly told them after last night’s loss to Columbus to heart.  However, after giving an explosive offense like the Penguins their 6th power play of the night, one had to expect that they would cash in - and that they did.  Alex Goligoski (who had an outstanding night) got the rally started with just over 8 minutes left in the game on the power play, and the Penguins never looked back.

Buffalo seemed to be holding on through the latter parts of the 2nd period, and then again over much of the 3rd, but it was done so by design, and I think the fatigue from playing on back-to-back nights may have taken its toll as the game drew to a close.  The tying goal by Goligoski was not the back breaker however, as a date with overtime and a guaranteed point would have been a victory for the Sabres.  The gut-wrencher was the Jordan Staal goal with less than 5-minutes on the clock.  Then, the wheels simply came off.

It couldn’t have started better for the Sabres, as they were all over Pittsburgh in the opening 20-minutes of the game, and especially in the first 10.  Unfortunately, Buffalo couldn’t widen the margin in those early stages of the contest, and letting the Penguins hang around for so long is likely the reason they will leave Pittsburgh tonight losers of 2 in a row, and 4 of their last 5.

Defensively, Buffalo showed that they are capable of playing sound hockey in their own end, and regardless of the loss, Lindy Ruff will need to show his troops how effective this style of play can be.  The film will illustrate that to a tee - for 52 minutes anyway. 

I have to admit that no sooner than my taking a shot at Andrew Peters, does he and the fourth line come out of the gates tonight with 2 or 3 excellent first period shifts, including a few quality scoring chances and a drawn penalty.  It was good to see Kaleta back in the line-up, and he made his presence felt all over the ice, including the defensive zone where he registered a couple of nice shot blocks.

Stafford was ok, but not where the Sabres need him to be.  His effort was there, but he is at times invisible on the ice, and like Kotalik, is somewhat one-dimensional.  As for Connolly, his absence was felt most noticeably on the power play, where Buffalo were not as dangerous as they have been in recent games.  The irony of course is that tonight was their first 5-on-4 power play goal since the Atlanta game. 

The Scoring

1st Period, 8:13: Buffalo got on the board first after a terrific play by Adam Mair, who streaked down the left wing, held up, and found Andrej Sekera whose rebound was found by Jason Pominville, and scooped over the outstretched pad of Fleury.

2nd Period, 11:07: Pittsburgh knotted it up on the power play after Evgeni Malkin took a hard point shot that hit a Buffalo player on the way in.  Miller nearly made an incredible save, but couldn’t hold on to the deflected puck, and it trickled in over the line behind him. 

2nd Period, 19:14: Thomas Vanek got back on the score sheet after a 3-game absence when he took a cross-crease pass from MacArthur on the power play to give Buffalo their second lead of the game.

3rd Period, 11:43: Alex Goligoski took a wonderful cross-ice pass from Sid the Kid, and after picking his spot, ripped a wrist shot inside the near post to beat Miller and tie the game at 2.

3rd Period, 15:27: On one of the few lapses in defensive zone coverage of the night, Matt Cooke found Jordan Staal all alone in front of Miller who one timed a shot stick side to give the Penguins their first lead of the game.

3rd Period, 16:29: After an offensive turnover by Andrej Sekera, the Penguins stormed back down ice on an odd man rush where Evgeni Malkin found Ruslan Fedotenko who was on the business end of a 4-2 Pittsburgh lead, all but putting it away.

3rd Period, 19:36: Jordan Stall rounded out the 3rd period onslaught with an empty net goal.

Three Stars

1)Jochen Hecht - Hecht was Buffalo’s best forward tonight, most notably on the penalty kill where he was blocking shots, and making key clears.  Additionally, he afforded his team more than one scoring chance by making hard working plays to keep the puck in the Pittsburgh end. 

2)Jason Pominville - His first period goal is a key contributor to his presence on this list, but 4 shots on goal and one of the few Buffalo forwards without a (-) on the night is enough to land him in the #2 star slot.

3)Toni Lydman - I don’t care that he was a minus-1.  Like the other night, Lydman was quietly the best Buffalo defenseman, and is putting together a fine season.  He had more than a couple blocked shots, and was hitting players along the boards with more authority than he has in the past couple of years.  Bear in mind that physical play along the wall doesn’t necessarily entail extensive board rattling, or highlight film hitting.

Notes

-Andrew Peters logged 5:33 of ice time, and registered 3 shots on goal.  Maybe I should bash him on a more regular basis.  Relatively speaking, this was a Gretzky-like night for the “enforcer.”

-Clarke MacArthur continues to make it impossible for Lindy Ruff to even consider sending down to Portland of the AHL.  For a player who was not expected to make the team, he just keeps piling up the points.

-Jason Pominville extended his 6-game scoring streak to 7 tonight (5+2=7).

-As hard as it may be to believe after allowing 4-goals, Ryan Miller was not bad this evening.  In fact, there were a few times late in the 2nd, and in parts of the 3rd where he made big saves while protecting a 1-goal lead.

Tonight’s loss, as tough as it was, illustrates perfectly my point that games like the one last night at home against Columbus are so important.  After a strong start, the Sabres now find themselves only 3-points away from being on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.  Their next game will be this upcoming Wednesday in Boston - another tough match-up where I believe a point would be a success.  Until then…

Go Sabres!

timanderson@sportstalkbuzz.com

Like this post? Share it »

Last post (s) by Tim Anderson

• Sizing up the Sabres: Impressive Team Effort Leads to 2nd Straight Win in Pittsburgh - December 8th, 2008
• Sizing up the Sabres: Gerbe's Spark Leads to Energetic Effort, and a 4-3 Win - December 6th, 2008
• Sizing up the Sabres: Sabres Add Much Needed Spark to the Line-up Tonight - December 6th, 2008
• Sizing up the Sabres: Anderson, Panthers Send Buffalo to Their 3rd Straight Loss - December 4th, 2008
• Sizing up the Sabres: Buffalo Likely to Make the Call to Portland - December 3rd, 2008