Tonight I thought the Sabres hung in there pretty well with a way better Carolina Hurricanes team, crawling back from a 4-1 deficit in the third period, but the comeback effort fell short, losing 6-3 on the road.

Exactly five minutes into the game, Sebastian Aho got the first goal of the game with a beautiful pass on the rush from Svechnikov with the quick one timer from Aho to make it 1-0 Carolina. Owen Power tied it up a couple minutes later with a really good team effort on the wall for the Sabres, leaving a wide open Power right in the slot to finish it on a nice shot with 11:42 left in the first. I thought the Hurricanes were definitely the better team in that first period, with a few more quality scoring chances than we did, but the Sabres hung in there pretty well and played decent hockey.

The Hurricanes took a 2-1 lead on the power play with a rocket of a shot from Andrei Svechnikov inside the top of the circle, top shelf with 4:34 into the second. I thought the Sabres did a good job responding to the goal, sustaining pressure in the Carolina zone for a few good minutes but not really getting any good scoring chances on it, then  as the Canes held pressure in the Sabres zone, Jesperi Kotkaniemi was left open up top, on top of the left circle and ripped a fast slap shot to get the 3-1 lead for Carolina with 8:21 left in the second. Carolina’s man to man defense really shut down the Sabres and even when we’d keep the pucks in the Canes’ zone, couldn’t really get any looks at the net. But we did do a good job of moving the puck. Buffalo had a beautiful chance to get back within one in the closing seconds of the second period, but we couldn’t get the puck in the net to go into the second intermission down by two, getting outshot 25-10.

Carolina very quickly made it a 4-1 game, just 29 seconds into the third period, on a backhand pass from blue line to blue line to set up Eric Robinson one on one a step ahead of Bowen Byram to beat Lyon on a quick shot. With 16:37 left in the regulation, Alex Tuch got the Sabres back within two, making it 4-2 on a far side perfectly placed shot on a two on one with Tage Thompson. The Sabres got back within one with 13:11 left with Tage Thompson getting open right in the slot coming up the ice in transition to make it 4-3. Very nice rush there for Buffalo. The Sabres did a good job of trying to tie up the game but Seth Jarvis ended it with an empty netter with 2:04 left in the game. If it wasn’t already, Charles Legault got his first NHL goal to ice off the game with 1:28 left on the Canes’ second empty netter.

FINAL: Sabres 3, Hurricanes 6

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I thought the Sabres actually did a decent job tonight in sustaining pressure in Carolina’s zone, passing the puck well and sticking in this game until late, but we were still completely unmatched with the Canes. The way Carolina plays that man to man defense is so sound, that even when Buffalo was able to hold the Hurricanes’ zone, they couldn’t generate shots. And they didn’t do themselves any favors on the back end, giving up 34 shots on goal to just our 22. I thought especially in the third period, Buffalo did a good job crawling back and pressing it late with 11 shots on goal in the third. With that strong third period, we actually out-chanced Carolina 16-13, it was just too much of a deficit to climb out of.

I’ve been saying it all season, but we’re just not a good team.

Cash the Canes in regulation, had to sweat that one out a bit tonight.

Side note: I know it was their third jersey that was redesigned as a white version of the Stadium Series one, but I loved the Canes wearing white at home. The whole league should go back to white at home and colored jerseys on the road.

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