Buffalo (G) Lyon ties Sabres 1976-77 record
Sabres 5 – Islanders 0 (en) The Buffalo Sabres continue their torrid pace by shutting out the New York Islanders as Sabres (G) Lyon tied a Sabres 1976-77 season goaltending record of nine consecutive victories with his second shutout of the season yesterday afternoon.
Buffalo (G) Lyon was penalized in the first period, and if you look on the NHL web site you will see that the NHL “officially” recorded his penalty as a “hooking” infraction, the initial and correct call was “interference”, and as a former goaltender I can assure you how difficult it would be to “hook” someone with your catching glove.
Buffalo announcers for the game were surprised at the interference call on Sabres (G) Lyon with Rob Ray pointing out all the actual interference happening at center ice that does not get called and even Dan Dunlevy chimed in with a sarcastic remark about Sabres (G) Lyon’s vicious interference call.
Head Coach of the Islanders Patrick Roy pulled his goaltender with six and a half minutes remaining in a game when his team was down by three goals, this is a tactic of HC Roy who has his team “practice” 6-on-5 drills and he utilizes this strategy consistently, but to no avail as Buffalo Captain (D) Dahlin scored the empty net with (C) Krebs who has scored four empty net goals this season earned the assist on last night’s empty net score.
The Sabres premier penalty killers staved off all three New York powerplays, and the team as a whole scored five goals for the 14th time this season creating a solid +17 goal differential, and with the win and Boston beating Montreal last night, Buffalo is now in sole possession of third place in the Atlantic Division becoming a playoff contender and not a “wild card”.
The last game of the Buffalo Sabres current five-game road trip ends this Tuesday night in Toronto at 7 pm EST.
Buffalo Winter 