I didn’t have time to finish writing this blog last night or publish it last night after the game ended but the Sabres played so well in their 3-1 win over the Islanders at home that I had to finish this up today.

After a scoreless first period that I thought the Sabres played pretty well in, Buffalo really got its footing in the second period. It took all the way till 2:23 left in the second for the opening goal of the game as Jeff Skinner beat Varlamov as Casey Mittelstadt kept the puck in the zone, brought it through the middle of the ice and then passed it over to set up Skinny for the shot over Varlamov’s glove. It didn’t take much more time for the Sabres to make it 2-0, with Mittelstadt setting up Mattias Samuelsson for his nice (rare) goal with 36.7 left in the second period.

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Dylan Cozens opened the third period scoring as the workhorse from Whitehorse capitalized just 2:40 into the third period off a great rush started by Rasmus Dahlin. The Sabres kept putting pressure on the Isles and didn’t let up all game. With 1:21 to go in the game, the Islanders ruined Eric Comrie’s shutout with a puck that deflected a few times over Comrie’s shoulder. Bad luck.

Beautiful win for the Sabres. Especially defensively I was impressed by this game and the evil is back with the red and the black.

FINAL: Sabres 3, Islanders 1

We outshot the Isles 43-25 and beat them out in scoring chances 29-13, outplaying the Islanders significantly, by an expected goal rate of 4.09-2.04. 

Lot to really like in this game. I thought the team defense was fantastic and the offense generated a ton of chances, putting up the most shots they have all season with the offense not really jelling before that game. Tage Thompson, despite not scoring had 14 shot attempts with ten of them on goal, which was impressive. Eric Comrie played well in goal and pretty much should have had a shutout in his first start this year.

Really solid game. Happy with the result. Let’s win again on Monday when the Habs come to town.

Let’s Go Sabres!

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