FINAL: BUF 4 NSH 5
SHOTS: BUF 32 NSH 41
POWER PLAY: BUF 0/2 NSH 1/4
HITS: BUF 24 NSH 10
BLOCKED SHOTS: BUF 12 NSH 12
GOALS:
BUF: Brian Gionta (13) assisted by Zach Bogosian (6) and Jack Eichel (23)
BUF: Kyle Okposo (19) assisted by Kake McCabe (12) and Matt Moulson (12)
NSH: Mike Fisher (16) assisted by Austin Watson (10) and Matt Irwin (9)
NSH: Colin Wilson (11) assisted by Ryan Johansen (39) and Roman Josi (26)
BUF: Evander Kane (22) assisted by Brian Gionta (16) and Cody Franson (14)
BUF: Jake McCabe (2) assisted by Kyle Okposo (22) and Ryan O’Reilly (26)
NSH: Ryan Johansen (10) assisted by Filip Forsberg (23)
NSH: Filip Forsberg (25) assisted by Victor Arvidsson (24)
NSH: Filip Forsberg (26) assisted by Roman Josi (27)
LINES:
Bailey-O’Reilly-Okposo
Kane-Eichel-Gionta
Foligno-Rodrigues-Reinhart
Moulson-Girgensons-Ennis
McCabe-Ristolainen
Kulikov-Bogosian
Gorges-Franson
Lehner
RECAP:
Tomorrow is the NHL trade deadline. Tonight’s game will most likely be that last game for a few Sabres players. Mainly Cody Franson and Dmitry Kulikov. Robin Lehner wasn’t expected to start tonight because of his upper body injury but the coaching staff determined that he was ready to play.
On a delayed penalty call, Eichel dropped the puck to Zach Bogosian, Bogo fired the puck wide of the net, and Brian Gionta banked the puck off of Rine and into the net. This was Gionta’s 1st goal in awhile. It’s nice to see Gionta finally score. He had a few amazing chances against the Coyotes last game.
A couple minutes later, another Sabre scored who hasn’t scored in awhile. And that was Kyle Okposo. That was Okposo’s 19th goal of the season.
Shortly after Okposo’s goal, the Preds dumped the puck to their captain, Mike Fisher, Lehner tried a Hasek-like poke check on Fisher, but Fisher was still able to put the puck into the empty net.
That was a very eventful final 4 minutes of the 1st period and the score would remain 2-1 heading into the 2nd period.
Rasmus Ristolainen took an early roughing penalty on Victor Arvidsson. This was a garbage call on Risto, all Risto was doing was getting Arvidsson away from Lehner. On that power play, Colin Wilson tied the game at 2 with an easy tap in.
Evander Kane ripped the puck past Rinne to give the Sabres a 3-2 lead. Kane now has 22 goals this season.
The score would remain 3-2 in favor of Buffalo heading into the 3rd period.
Early in the 3rd period, Evander Kane and PK Subban were going at it and both of them went to the box for roughing. After that, Kyle Okposo took a shot on net and Rinne let out a nice rebound to a trailing Jake McCabe and Caber gave Buffalo the 4-2 lead.
Evan Rodrigues went to the room after blocking a shot. He took a holding penalty after grabbing a Predator players jersey. That was a very weak call there. ERod did return shortly after going to the room.
Ryan Johansen scored with 8 minutes left in regulation to make it 4-3. The Sabres blew a 2 goal lead in the 3rd period last game against the Coyotes.
Filip Forsberg tied the game at 4 with 2:23 to go in the game. Unbelievable, just unbelievable.
This game would stay tied at 4 and would head to overtime. Last time the Sabres and Preds faced each other Eichel had a beautiful overtime goal.
Buffalo had a power play to start overtime. They had several opportunities to score but they couldn’t capitalise.
And Filip Forsberg won the game in overtime. He sniped it past Lehner and now the Sabres have lost 2 games in a row when they had a 2 goal lead in the 3rd period. The Sabres will face the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday night and hopefully there will be some new faces on this team.
