Pominville Puts Sabres on the Verge

For the most part, the Buffalo Sabres are in the best position of any of the seven teams outside of the top 8 in the Eastern Conference.

Literally, they’re sitting in 9th place, a mere 1 point behind the Carolina Hurricanes for 8th and 2 points back of the New York Rangers for 7th.

What is more impressive is the fact that the Sabres are tied for the fewest games played in the East. They control their own destiny with two big games in hand on Carolina and three on the struggling Rangers.

Today, the Sabres rallied from being two goals down at the end of the first period to escape Philadelphia with a 5-3 victory over the top seeded Flyers.

First period goals from Kris Versteeg, who has benefited immensely thanks to a change of scenery after being acquired from Toronto, and James van Riemsdyk, the Flyers looked poised to cruise to the 2 points which would give them a 5 point cushion on the Boston Bruins for the top spot in the East.

But the Sabres would not leave the City of Brotherly Love without putting up a fight.

Thomas Vanek moved deep into the Flyers zone and fed Drew Stafford in front of the Philadelphia net. Stafford had snuck behind the defenders, took the pass on his forehand and lifted a shot above Sergei Bobrovsky’s left pad to cut the deficit in half.

Buffalo would strike again under two minutes later on one of the strangest looking goals of the season.

Tyler Ennis carried the puck to the blue line, looking as if he would fire a shot on goal and force a whistle. Instead, he lifted the puck and sent it into the corner where he would chase it down. He carried the puck towards the back of the net and then centered a pass looking for Patrick Kaleta who was battling Sean O’Donnell for positioning. O’Donnell pushed Kaleta into Bobrovsky and the Flyers goal as the pass then deflected off of O’Donnell and into the goal, right behind Kaleta. Ennis would get credit for his 8th of the year as the Sabres pulled even.

Andrej Sekera would add a rare goal to give Buffalo their first lead of the game just past the midway point of the 2nd period. Although a Thomas Vanek turnover lead to a shorthanded goal by Kimmo Timonen, the Sabres still maintained the momentum exiting the 2nd.

6 minutes into the 3rd period, Jason Pominville broke between the Flyers back check as Thomas Vanek fed him a pass from the left wing boards, which Pominville tipped into the back of the net for the 2nd Buffalo lead of the game.

Nathan Gerbe would add an empty net goal to seal the victory with just over a minute to go in regulation.

Buffalo has a quick turnaround as they head to Minnesota for a Sunday match up against the Wild.

Game 7: Chasing the Keepers

Earlier tonight, I posted that the Sabres would be in store for a challenge if the Panthers started Scott Clemmensen. Well, I was half right, as the Panthers started Clemmer, but I was way off with his performance and the problems facing the Sabres.

A mere 1 minute and 56 seconds into the game, the Sabres had a 2-0 lead and Clemmensen had himself an early exit.

Mike Grier got things started as he broke in on an odd-man rush and beat Clemmensen 5 hole for his 2nd of the season, just 1 minute 11 seconds into the game.

Jason Pominville sealed Clemmer's fate with a powerplay goal a mere 45 seconds later.

Clemmensen's line: 3 shots faced, 1 save, .333 save percentage.

Enter Tomas Vokoun who started off just as shaky as Clemmensen, surrendering a goal to Matt Ellis for his first, the team's 3rd, and the game wasn't even 5 minutes old at this point.

Buffalo would add another from Tyler Myers, his second, before Florida would respond with their first.

Steve Reinprecht would get Florida's only first period marker, but just over 2 minutes later, on a great never-give-up type of play, Thomas Vanek crashed the net hard while the puck was still loose and registered his 4th.

Buffalo held a 5-1 edge at the end of the first period, and they never looked back.

Stealing a line from the on-line soccer game hattrick.org, "at this point with a safe lead, the Sabres decided to focus on their defensive aspects of the game."

While the Panthers held a decisive edge in the shots on goal department, the Sabres' lead never looked in doubt.

Going back to Myers really quick, he looked quite impressive, including his shot from the point which narrowly missed Derek Roy's stick and deflected off of Vokoun's catching glove and into the net. He certainly rebounded from a shaky performance against the Thrashers on Saturday night.


Sabres 5 - Panthers 2

Running Tally of Sabres Chasers

1.) Chris Osgood - 10/13

2.) Dwayne Roloson - 10/16

3.) Scott Clemmensen - 10/21

5-1-1, 11 points

Next up: Saturday night @ Tampa Bay, 730.

Sabres Game 5: Deja Vu?

For the second game in a row, the buffalo Sabres netted 6 goals. And, for the second straight time, they chased the starting goalie for the opposing team.

Their first victim was Chris Osgood, last night Dwayne Roloson. both were sent shamefully to the bench in the 2nd period, but Roloson allowed only 4 goals to Osgood’s 5 before losing their coach's favor.

While the 4 goals are an obvious way to see the goalie didn't bring their ‘A’ game, the first goal allowed was a great harbinger.

Tyler Myers' shot midway through the first period seemed pretty harmless. It was a backhander from the high slot with not a lot on it, but it almost seemed to catch Rolie off guard. Normally though, when a goalie gets caught off guard, it’s on a hard shot. Myer's was a fluttering wrister that snuck right through Roloson's 5-hole for the rookie's first career goal.

4 goals later, Roloson found himself sitting on the bench, being lifted in favor of former Sabre Martin Biron.

Biron, who entered to a rousing ovation, had a lot of success while facing his former club, and he gave he Isles a chance to get back into it.

John Taveres netted his third of the season while on the powerplay just under 4 minutes after Biron entering the game in the 2nd period.

The Isles were given another opprotunity to cut into the Sabres' lead when Henrik Tallinder took a holding call about 3 minutes into the 3rd period. However, the Sabres were able to kill off the opprotunity, and were able to turn that momentum into their 5th goal of the night.

Andy Sutton would answer less than a minute later, but that would be the final Islander goal of the night.

Jason Pominville added further insurance with his first goal of the season at the 15:52 mark of the period as Buffalo cruised to a 6-3 victory.


4-0-1, 8 points

Next up: Saturday vs. Atlanta, 7:30