Sabres Smack Sens, 3-2

Thomas Vanek got back on track tonight, scoring two goals, including the game winner in the third, to salt away a 3-2 Sabres victory over an Ottawa Senators team that had given them fits all year.

The first ten minutes of the game were fairly benign, but the Sabres stepped the pressure up in the second half and ended up out-shooting the Senators 15-8 for the period. It was a sloppy session, marked by numerous offside and icing calls by both teams that chopped up the flow of play. Ottawa goalie Ray Emery looked shaky, but managed to emerge from the period with a scoreless tie.

The game remained scoreless for much of the second period until Thomas Vanek finally got the Sabres on the board at the 11:27 mark. Ottawa defenseman Anton Volchenkov attempted to pass the puck cross-ice from his own blueline back to his defense partner. Thomas Vanek jumped on the lazy pass, which was intended for Joe Corvo, and skated in on Emery. Vanek showed patience, and Emery went down as Vanek held the puck and slipped a low forehand past the outstretched goalie.

But the Sabres…they tease. The fans hadn’t even settled back in their seats when Marty Biron left a bad rebound off a Corvo wrister. Dean McAmmond pounced on it just 41 seconds after Vanek’s goal to tie the game back up at one each. The Sabres then showed the sort of moxie they had shown for most of the year, skating hard and generating a couple chances before the end of the period. Those efforts finally paid off when the Sabres took the lead late in the period. After trading a couple solid scoring opportunities the Sabres took advantage of some end-to-end action when Derek Roy lugged the puck out of his own end down the left wing. With Max Afinogenov on his right and Nathan Paetsch hustling to fill the slot, Roy saucered a puck to Afinogenov, who one-timed a wobbly puck off the inside of the left post for the 2-1 advantage with just under two-and-a-half minutes to play. The shots ended 11-11 for the period, which was a fun period as the action was fairly steady thanks to the rarity of no penalties being called.

Early in the third the Sabres ended up two men down thanks to a horrible call by the officials. Already one man down, Teppo Numminen gained control of the puck behind his net and backhanded the puck off the glass and out of play. Despite the puck clearly striking the glass, the Sabres were whistled for a delay of game penalty. Buffalo killed the two-man edge, but Ottawa’s Peter Schaeffer scored off a hard-work rebound in front of the Buffalo net with just 17 seconds left in the penalty to tie the game.

The game was tense for the next ten minutes, but the Sabres never stopped skating. Ales Kotalik drew a penalty in front of the Ottawa net when Wade Redden took him down with just 5:35 left. The Sabres applied some decent pressure, including a point-blank chance that Hecht fired into the stands, before they broke through. On a crazy series in the Ottawa end, Vanek got the puck to a wide-open Numminen at the right point. His shot ended up in front of the net, and Vanek had a good whack at the rebound that Emery kicked out to his right. The rebound went right to Ales Kotalik at the left faceoff dot, and he fired a shot at Emery, who was way out of the net to cut down the angle. The puck ended up being deflected right to Thomas Vanek, who then redirected it into a wide open net for the 3-2 lead and the eventual game winner.

The Sabres ended the game with a 37-30 edge in shots, and managed to narrow the season series to 4-2. The win also gives Buffalo 78 points, tops in the NHL – for tonight anyway. Buffalo now has two days off at home before facing Calgary on Saturday night in the HSBC Arena.