Author: Buffalo Winter

Buffalo continues its road dominance by beating Nashville 5-3 with a short-handed tally by Captain Okposo and the first score of the game was Mr. Skinner’s who put on a clinic on how to deke a goaltender out of position and slide the puck in the net.

The first period ended tied at one with Buffalo having two power plays and getting shots through just not through the goaltender and outshot the Predators by a three-to-one ratio.

Two minutes into the second period Nashville is pressuring and buzzing all around Mr. Luukkonen when Mr. Quinn gets a hold of the puck and backhands it to the blueline where Mr. Cozens and Mr. Peterka are behind four Predators for a two on one odd man rush.

At the blue line, Mr. Cozens corrals the puck to Mr. Peterka who gives it back to Mr. Cozens who proceeds straight down Main Street mostly uninterrupted and snaps a greasy hotshot that beats Mr. Soros top left corner for the 2-1 Buffalo lead.

Minutes later Nashville “pushes” the goaltender and puck into the net and the review determines the call on the ice stands “no goal”. The Predators are penalized for goaltender interference and with this power play the Sabres take a two-goal lead with Mr. Olofsson’s iron-clanging 17^th of the season.

There were less than five minutes remaining in the second period when Nashville scored two quick ones in 40 seconds to tie the game at three then proceeded to earn another penalty which carried over into the third period.

Nearly seven minutes into the third period with Mr. Jost penalized, Nashville outshooting Buffalo, and on the power play, it is Captain Okposo skating to the net receiving a pass from Mr. Lyubushkin, and deflecting the puck through his legs scoring short-handed for the 4-3 lead.

With just over three minutes remaining in the game, Mr. Quinn makes a great pass from our zone to once again spring a two on one odd man rush with Mr. Peterka and Mr. Cozens but Nashville is able to get back and disrupt the play.

Nashville recovers the puck but their blind pass from the corner is scooped up by Mr. Quinn who skates from one side of the faceoff circle to the other before dropping to his knee releasing the shot for the score and recovering Buffalo’s two-goal lead and a Sabres 5-3 win.

The Sabres take on the Panthers at home tomorrow afternoon at one o’clock before heading out to Chicago for Tuesday night’s Reverse Retro sweater game versus the Blackhawks.

From the East Coast to the Western shores the NHL scheduled three games last night and the fans were out in force.

A Proud Winnipegger halfway through a 4-1 enjoyable road victory amidst disappointed Penguins fans in Pittsburgh.

In Anaheim, the fired-up fans brought a John Lennon doppelganger to pray for victory.

The Ducks had cheerleaders throughout the arena.

All for naught as Matthew Broderick took time off from his busy schedule filming the re-make of “War Games” to cheer on New Jersey downstate from a set location in Hollywood.

Yes, Miss Warwick Edmonton fans like Daniel Craig do know the way to San Jose.

And they are fired up about being there.

Tonight the Sabres visit the Predators at eight o’clock and will be wearing their Reverse Retro sweaters.

“Happy Royal Blue New Year”

This a great quote from Mr. Dunleavy after one of the more exciting come-from-behind wins versus the number one team in the NHL in an afternoon game to kick off the New Year’s Eve celebrations.

In the first period, Mr. Luukkonen played a huge role early, and with good stick work from the entire team, Mr. Thompson was able to score to tie the game at one assisted by Mr. Skinner who currently has earned a 10-game 17 points streak.

The second period was filled with blood in the first eight minutes as a deflected puck struck a fan in the head requiring bandages, (I did not see any netting), and Mr. Krebs participated in his first NHL fight resulting in his head bleeding onto the ice.

Before the carnage began in the second period Mr. Tuch scored his 16^th goal of the year at the 17:57 mark allowing the Sabres to start the third period up 2-1.

In the third period, Boston literally shoots half of their game’s SOG (19) and went up 3-2 with 7:35 remaining 52 seconds later Buffalo is whistled for a four-minute penalty then four seconds later another two-minute penalty to be down 5 on 3 for two minutes.

Buffalo’s penalty killers along with Mr. Luukkonen making a game-saving pad save on Mr. Pasta himself killed off the penalties, Buffalo proceeds to pull the goalie, and with 1:45 remaining in the game, Mr. Dahlin makes a block/save on Mr. Pastrnak’s shot at the empty net.

Then  Mr. Dahlin shoots the puck all the way to the opposite end boards where the puck rebounded off the dashboard to near the center of the left faceoff circle to Mr. Tuch who deftly touch passes it to Mr.Cozens whose shot beats the goalie for the 3-3 tie with 97 seconds remaining.

In overtime, Mr. Cozens stripped the puck from Mr. Burgeron, skated from the Buffalo zone deep into Boston territory while double teamed dropped the puck back to Mr. Tuch in the slot who patiently avoided two defenders before snapping a greasy wrister with 67 seconds remaining for the win.

Buffalo is now riding a six-game winning streak and looks to make it seven tonight on the road in Canada’s capital versus the Ottawa Senators.

Last night’s 6-3 victory over the visiting Red Wings highlights how far the Sabres young corps of players have come in learning, earning experience, and developing into a solid winning team.

It appeared that most of the 19,070 seats were filled with Hockey fans in a game that meant a little bit more after the blizzard we endured at times tragically here along the Lake this past week.

One NHL slogan today is, “no lead is safe”, as witnessed by Detroit’s four-goal deficit comeback versus Pittsburgh the night before fueling hope for the Red Wings as Detroit snapped three quick goals in less than five minutes in the first half of the third period.

As HC Granato and some players pointed out in post-game interviews they are getting better at holding leads and on a night when Mr. Thompson, Mr. Tuch, and Mr. Dahlin are held off the score sheet there was production across the board.

Detroit owned the third period with three goals and 17 SOG but came up far short as they were penalized a couple of minutes after their third score and that seemed to cool things off but they pulled the goalie with 4:55 remaining.

Mr. Luukkonen held on to the puck at the 4:11 mark and after the face off Buffalo iced the puck at 3:55 Commentator Mr. Ray remarked it was good icing and that the team just needs to be patient.

Sure enough, 18 seconds later Captain Okposo completes his hat trick with a happy net goal, and it’s hats off for the Captain, a five-game winning streak, second highest scoring team, and the second-best power play in the NHL.