Buffalo Scores Twice in SO for First Win of Season

(Photo by Gregg Forwerck)

The Buffalo Sabres have not been off to a good start so far in this new NHL season. They were out shot 131-57 in the first three games and they seem to always collapse in the third period. Sabres captain Brian Gionta had this to say, “We’re three games in so there’s no sense of panic, but at the same time, there should be a sense of urgency.” The Sabres had a good change to their momentum with the game in Carolina. The Hurricanes have yet to win a game this season as well.

Marcus Foligno opened the scoring for Buffalo 12 minutes into the first period after a missed shot by Carolina set up a 2 on 1 break for the Sabres. “It felt like we were in a practice mode like we were at end of practice we had time. It’s the longest 2-on-1 time I ever had,” Foligno said.

Carolina came out in the 2nd ready to play and scored just 30 seconds in to tie the game at 1. Buffalo’s Jhonas Enroth came out of the net to play the puck and just could not get back in time to stop the shot from Riley Nash. It was an ugly play with a bad result for Buffalo.

Buffalo was able to get back in the lead with a goal from Torrey Mitchell a little over a minute after Carolina tied the game. Mitchell was skating up the left hand side when Brian Gionta passed him the puck and Mitchell just took the shot from the face off circle and with luck, the puck crossed the goal line. “It was kind of a knuckle puck, but it felt good to go in,” Mitchell said. “We said before the game, ‘No shot’s a bad shot.’ It was good to finally just get a shot on net and lucky for it to go in.”

Foligno would score his second of the night almost three minutes into the 3rd with a great shot through two Carolina players and into the back of the net. Now it would be about this time that most fans would be excited because the Sabres are up 3-1, but again, the third period is a bad one for the team and they would not disappoint. Carolina was able to score to more goals to tie the game back up at 3. Chris Terry scored 12 minutes in and Zach Boychuk scored with just under 2 minutes left to send the game into overtime.

There were not very many chances for either team in the overtime period so off to the shoot out we went. The summary is as follows:

Carolina                                                                         Buffalo

Alexander Semin- Miss                                              Matt Moulson- Goal
Chris Terry- Goal                                                        Cody Hodgson- Miss
Nathan Gerbe- Miss                                                   Tyler Ennis- Miss
Jay McClement- Miss                                                Chris Stewart- Miss
Victor Rask- Miss                                                       Marcu Foligno- Miss
Zach Boychuk- Miss                                                  Drew Stafford- Miss
Elias Linholdm- Miss                                                Brian Gionta- Miss
Jiri Tlusty- Miss                                                         Zemgus Girgensons- Goal

8 rounds of shootout players and Buffalo’s Zemgus Girgensons was able to end the game with Buffalo coming out as the winners, 4-3. “I picked a move right off the bat if we had to go through that many players. I just did what I had to do,” Girgensons stated.

Buffalo’s next game is Friday at home against the Florida Panthers while Carolina plays Thursday on the road against the New York Rangers.