FINAL: CAR 3 BUF 1
SHOTS: CAR-34 BUF-23
GOALS:
CAR: Skinner (13), assists: Slavin and Hanifin
CAR: Faulk (6), assists: Stempniak
BUF: Larsson (6), assists Reinhart and Foligno
CAR: Aho (6), assists Rask and Pesce
RECAP:
The Sabres once again got off to a very weak start. Jaccob Slavin made a great pass to a wide open Jeff Skinner and he buried it past Robin Lehner to make it 1-0 Carolina.
Late in the first period Western New York native Lee Stempniak stripped Rasmus Ristolainen of the puck which led to a three on one and he fed the puck to Justin Faulk who beat Lehner high glove. That was a pretty weak goal given up by Lehner but he played very well the rest of the game.
Dan Bylsma sent a message to the team by taking Jack Eichel off of the power play as well as giving Eichel very limited minutes in the first period. Eichel returned to the power play in the third period.
The Sabres continued their streak of just playing great in the last 15 minutes of the game. Sam Reinhart gave Johan Larsson a fantastic pass from behind the net to make it 2-1.
With a minute to go in the game, the Sabres pulled Robin Lehner to get an extra attacker and Sebastian Aho scored an empty net goal to seal the deal.
The Sabres are not going to go very far this season if they continue to only play good for about 15 minutes, take too many penalties, score only one goal a game, and play terrible defensively. This loss was not robin Lehner’s fault at all. You can’t expect the guy to put up Hasek-like performances night in and night out. They need to start scoring more goals.
The Sabres face the Islanders tonight in Brooklyn.
