Game 70: Bro-Tastic/We Need More Tylers

Thanks to an amazing game by Tyler Ennis and Tyler Myers’ goal in OT, the Sabres were able to finish off the Habs in overtime, 3-2.

 

1st Period: The Tropp-Boyes-Kaleta line had Buffalo first really good scoring chance about three minutes in. Tropp made a beautiful pass to Kaleta who almost got the puck by Budaj. Some more sustained pressure and shots resulted from the chance as well, but to no avail. Montreal would lead off the scoring though at the 15:28 mark. After a failed clear along the boards, the puck found its way back to Erik Cole just inside the blueline and he shot it in through a partial screen. The Sabres followed that up with some rather uninspiring shifts. Myers left the ice around the 11-minute mark after he sustained some sort of injury on his right arm. He would come back out for his next shift though which was obviously a very good thing.

Ennis would generate another scoring chance for the Sabres by holding onto the puck and finding Vanek who shot the puck with Foligno standing in front of Peter Budaj. Once again, they were denied and it remained 1-0. Buffalo would get a few more shots, none of which translated into goals or good scoring chances though, so they were still down by a goal going into the 2nd. Roy throwing Erik Cole into the corner though in the dying seconds of the period was the big highlight of the first for them.

 

2nd Period: Thanks to a strong opening shift by Gerbe, Roy, and Stafford, Buffalo was able to draw a penalty and get the game’s first power play. The power play started off slow, but had a nice push to create a couple of really nice chances. Montreal’s PKers managed to keep the puck out of the net to keep the Sabres scoreless. The same line that help get that power play would come in on a 3-on-1 around the 16:30 point of the period. Roy ripped a shot that Budaj saved with his glove. Shortly after that, he attempted a shot, but fanned on it and accidently whacked Andrei Markov in the face. It shouldn’t have been a penalty according to the rules. Apparently, the refs weren’t aware of that.

Buffalo was very successful in killing off the penalty (they killed 19 straight penalties to this point) and kept it a one-goal game. Leino made a couple of slick moves to get in close to the goal about a couple minutes after the penalty expired. He missed the net in the process though. Ennis would finally tie the game up with about 12 minutes to go in the period. The other Tyler made an amazing move and turned Andrei Markov inside out, then proceeded to go backhand-forehand and blasted the puck by Budaj to make it 1-1. Kaleta would have a really great chance to give Buffalo the lead, but got robbed by the journeyman goaltender. Despite just flat-out dominating the rest of the period, the score would stay tied, 1-1 with the 3rd period coming up.

 

3rd Period: Montreal had the better legs for the first couple of shifts. That didn’t matter to Ennis though. He and Foligno went in on a 2-on-1 against Alexei Emelin. Ennis attempted to float a pass to Foligno for the tap-in. During that sequence, Emelin broke up the play and sent the puck into his own net in the process to make it 2-1 Sabres. Foligno made that play possible by keeping things simple and just continuing to drive the net. Buffalo really seemed to feed off that goal because the other lines took the effort-level up a notch after that. Ennis continued to play out of his mind, pretty doing what he wanted on the ice. It took him being sat on for him to get stopped. No penalty was called on the play though.

Regehr made a nice play to break up a 2-on-1 chance for Montreal after Weber got caught with just over seven minutes to go. Myers would take a pretty dumb penalty about 30 seconds later and hit Gomez between the numbers. That got negated though because almost right after the faceoff, Max Pacioretty hooked Regehr behind the net. No more goals resulted from the extra open ice. The Sabres continued to just go about their business, but failed to get an insurance goal. Ryan Miller wasn’t very busy during the period, but he made two exceptional saves just after the Habs had pulled Budaj to keep the lead intact. Montreal got Buffalo running around late with the net empty and David Desharnais would put the puck in with 4.6 seconds left in regulation to tie the game up and send it to overtime.

Overtime: Myers would end this for Buffalo about two minutes in. Roy, Pominville, and Myers went in on a rush and Roy made a great pass to Myers. From there, Myers stepped in beat Budaj to get extra point.

Quick-hit time:

-Ennis had the game of his career. He pretty much did what he wanted. The only time Montreal was able to stop him was when they sat on him.

-I hope Myers doesn’t get Shannabanned for that hit.

-Sorry Hodgson, but you’re relegated to 4th line duty for now. Ruff has two working lines in Foligno-Ennis-Stafford & Gerbe-Leino-Kaleta. He sure as hell isn’t putting Roy in that spot.

-Foligno keeps the game nice and simple. Very refreshing to see.

-Why were Roy, Pominville, Foligno, Sulzer, and Regehr out there for Montreal’s game-tying goal?

-Miller looked off most of the night, but he got the job done. That’s all that counts.

-Don VanMassivehoser….errr Don VanMassenhoven is a terrible referee. Get some glasses pal.

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