After losing back to back games to Montreal and Florida over the weekend, the Buffalo Sabres hoped to get back on track in Ottawa against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday, Feb. 5.
However, the end result in this game was the same, as the Sabres lost again, this time by a score of 4-3.
Almost eight minutes into the opening period, Sabres defenseman Adam Pardy was called for a holding penalty, giving the Senators a power play.
About half a minute into the power play, Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson fired a shot from the blue line that sailed through traffic and over Sabres goalie Jhonas Enroth’s shoulder into the net, giving the Senators a 1-0 lead.
The Sabres tied it up 21 seconds later on a goal by Tyler Ennis. Drew Stafford took a shot from the top of the right circle that Senators goalie Craig Anderson had trouble handing, and Ennis backhanded the puck into the net after it fell to the ice.
The tie game didn’t last long, though, as Senators defenseman Chris Phillips scored two and a half minutes later. After a faceoff win by Senators forward Peter Regin, the puck went back to Phillips, who then fired a shot towards Enroth. Although it appeared that Enroth initially made the stop, the puck trickled between his pads and barely across the goal line, giving the Senators a 2-1 lead with 9:55 remaining in the first period.
Then, a little over three minutes later, Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson put the Senators up 3-1 with a shot from the slot that eluded Enroth after he took a pass from Mika Zibanejad, who had stolen the puck from Cody Hodgson in the corner.
8:12 in the second period, Ottawa made it 4-1 on a goal by Chris Neil. Similar to the Senators third goal, Neil took a pass from the corner from Peter Regin, and took a wrist shot from the slot that beat Enroth low on the stick side.
The Sabres answered back with a goal of their own 57 seconds later. Sabres forward Jochen Hecht went around behind the net for a wrap around shot that defenseman Jordan Leopold redirected passed Craig Anderson, cutting the score to 4-2.
The Sabres finally climbed within one with 6:05 remaining in the third period. Cody Hodgson took a shot from the left side of the net, which deflected off of Jason Pominville’s skate and into the net. While the referees initially waved the goal off, the play was reviewed and eventually deemed to be a good goal, as it was determined that Pominvlle did not purposely direct the puck into the net with an apparent “kicking motion”.
The Sabres had a few close chances in the final minute of play, but could not get the equalizer, and the game ended with the score 4-3 in favor of the Senators.
Jhonas Enroth, making his second start of the season for the Sabres, stopped 20 shots out of the 24 he faced.
Senators goalie Craig Anderson also made 20 saves, but only faced 23 shots. After being named the NHL’s number one star for the month of January and leading the league in Save Percentage and Goals Against Average, today’s game marked the first time this season he had given up a goal in either the second or third period of a game.
Thomas Vanek was held off the score sheet for the first time this season for the Sabres, who going into Tuesday's game led the NHL in scoring with 19 points with eight goals and 11 assists.
With the loss, the Sabres have now lost seven of their last eight games after starting the season 2-0-0, and fall to 3-6-1 after the first 10 games of the season. Their next game is at home on Thursday night against the Montreal Canadiens.
Comments