Today in a matinee on the road in Carolina, where the Sabres haven’t won since 2016, Brandon Bussi put on an absolutely incredible clinic in goal, shutting down Buffalo as we lost two in a row for the first time since early December, falling 2-1 on the road to the Hurricanes.
The Sabres quickly opened the scoring, with a huge rip far side by Rasmus Dahlin in transition, scoring on the rush 1:33 into the game to put Buffalo up 1-0 early. Carolina tied it back up, 7:04 into the game with Andrei Svechnikov tipping in a perfect setup from Sebastian Aho. The period started really well for the Sabres, and we had some great caches, but as it went on, Carolina started to control the game. The Canes had a ton of really good chances with UPL making some fantastic saves, and their man to man defense shut down and good chances we had, not giving up a shot on goal by the Sabres for over eleven minutes, outshooting us 13-3 through 20 minutes.
The second period was scoreless, but I thought a much better one. Both teams had a bunch of great chances but with very good goaltending, some key saves from both sides, and impressively sound defense by both teams, still a 1-1 tied up game going into the third. Tage Thompson had an absolutely perfect chance right in the crease on a tip, and Brandon Bussi had the highlight reel save of the year, robbing it with the glove at point blank range. Incredible.
The Canes took the lead 2:10 into the third period, with Seth Jarvis getting a one timer on the power play on a clean setup by Andrei Svechnikov, then following his own rebound and putting it in the back of the net to put Carolina up 2-1. Right after that, Tage had yet another fantastic chance, and yet again, Bussi came up with a huge impressive save. The Sabres had some great looks late, but with several saves by Bussi in a flurry of shots, we couldn’t score and with a last fraction of a second save, we lose in Carolina.
FINAL: Sabres 1, Hurricanes 2
What a game in goal by Brandon Bussi. That was the entire difference in this game tonight as he broke a record for the most wins by a goaltender in the first 22 games of his career. The Sabres had some fantastic chances, especially Tage, but just couldn’t solve a stellar performance in goal. Other than that, this was a very good, edge of your seat matinee of hockey. I thought the Sabres played pretty good. Defensively they did a great job of shutting down the high quality scoring chances for the Hurricanes, and Luukkonen made some great saves to keep this game so low scoring. Buffalo had the chances, but it was just highlight reel save after highlight reel save from Bussi. The losing streak in Carolina, where we haven’t won since 2016 continues. But holy shit what a game in goal from Bussi. First two game losing streak for the Sabres since early in December, continuing the losing weekend of heartbreaks for this city.
Back at it again tomorrow night, have to bounce back and get a win in Smashville.
Let’s Go Buffalo.
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