Tonight the Sabres played pretty good in Colorado in the second half of a back to back, but the Avalanche are just the better team and beat us 6-3 in a game that ended up being closer than it looked.

The Avs got on the board right away, with Marty Necas going on a breakaway just 52 seconds in, deking out Lyon to make it 1-0 on the first shot of the game. Arturi Lehkonen made it 2-0 Avs 6:10 into the game, following a shot to the net and tapping it in. With that goal, Colorado’s second goal on their third shot, Lindy pulled Alex Lyon putting in UPL. That was quick. The Sabres got on the board with 12:13 left in the first, with a tip in from Bowen Byram tipping the puck into the back of the net with traffic in front of the goal. Colorado answered right back just a couple minutes later on a Brock Nelson goal from the slot on a really clean play in front to make it 3-1. With 6:32 left in the first, Jordan Greenway picked up his first goal of the season to get the Sabres back within one again on a beautiful pass from Owen Power setting him up right in front. The Avs thought for a second that they made it 4-2 on a Landeskog goal right in the slot, but it was immediately called no goal for goaltender interference. Jared Bednar challenged the no goal since it looked like Jacob Bryson pushed Jack Drury into UPL. After review, it was determined to still not be a goal. The Sabres played slightly better than I expected, but still, Colorado was the way better team in that high scoring first period.

After that electric first period, it took a while for either team to light the lamp, but it was the Sabres to score first, with a rocket from Tage Thompson on the power play from the top of the circle to tie the game at 3 with 5:04 left in the second. The Avs answered right back though, making it 4-3 with a hell of a shot in transition by Gavin Brindley at a low angle with 3:38 left in the second, cashing my big team total bet on Colorado. Pretty good period for the Sabres to stay in this game.

Both teams had some decent chances in the third, but with 3:03 left, Nathan MacKinnon with some nice work down low behind the net set up Necas in the slot for his second goal of the game on a pretty bad effort by the Sabres defense to make it 5-3 Avs. With 1:49, Gabriel Landeskog put one in the empty net after an unlucky turnover from a broken stick to finish it off 6-3.

FINAL: Sabres 3, Avalanche 6

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Honestly not nearly as bad of a blowout as I expected this game to be. I thought the Sabres hung in there from start to finish. Obviously the Avalanche are a spectacular team and far more talented than Buffalo is, and it makes sense they won, and they really poured it on, but the Sabres played good tonight. We were outshot 33-22 and out-chanced 32-17. The bad start just ended up being too much to erase. 

PS: I cleaned house on this game. Free money on Colorado.

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