Sabres 5, Kings 0: Buffalo netminder makes 40 saves for 10th career shutout
Miller makes it an open-and-shut case for Sabres
Buffalo rebounds on home ice
Two years ago the Buffalo Sabres finished 45 points ahead of the Los Angeles Kings while winning the Presidents' Trophy. Last season the difference between the two teams narrowed to 19. Friday night the Kings came to HSBC Arena with a chance to vault over the Sabres in the overall NHL standings as the season inched toward the midway point.
Ryan Miller would have none of it.
The young and improving Kings hit the ice sizzling but Miller refused to relent. He turned aside 13 shots in the first period, made another 12 in the second and capped his 10th career shutout with a 15-save third in a 5-0 Buffalo victory that was hardly a cakewalk.
Derek Roy was Buffalo's best skater start to finish and it showed on the stat sheet: a goal and two assists. Adam Mair, Clarke MacArthur, Drew Stafford and the recalled Matt Ellis accounted for the other goals as the Sabres separated themselves from a two-game home losing streak and scored five goals on HSBC ice — or any ice — for the first time since blanking Washington, 5-0, on Nov. 1.
The Sabres won going away because Miller kept them from being blown away. The Kings had a 25-13 advantage in shots through two periods and owned more scoring chances to that point. Unless Miller's ultra sharp, this was one of those games that could have turned the other way in a hurry.
"That's mostly what happened there," Roy said. "Ryan played well for us. When we needed him, he was there. He made some huge saves to keep the game 1-0 or 2-0, and those are key moments in the game where you can make a big save and come back and score a goal."
"There was a lot of big saves, and a couple of them turned into our rush chance right after," defenseman Toni Lydman said. "It was good to see him get the shutout. We haven't been doing a great job in front of him helping him out. It's good to see him get rewarded for the hard work he's been doing for us."
Miller figured it was time to put up. It's been an inconsistency, with him playing well some nights, average on others, poor on a few. What he hadn't had in a while was the kind of game he produced Friday, when he made it clear early on that he was in control, when he carried a solid start right through to the finish.
"Sometimes you got to have a little bit of edge in your game and I don't know if I've had it," Miller said. "You kind of get to the point where you're mad enough at yourself and you're confident enough in your game where you can go out and play."
Twice in the second period Los Angeles buzzed the Buffalo net only to see the Sabres counter with goals. Mair netted his fourth at 2:33 and MacArthur his seventh at 6:56 as Buffalo built a 3-0 lead that defied the shot totals.
Few Sabres seemed to have their legs early on but Roy was one of them. His rush set up Stafford for a move across the crease that culminated with MacArthur converting from right in front. Roy's dash came just after Miller made back-to-back saves on Patrick O'Sullivan and the Kings' leading scorer, Anze Kopitar.
"They got a good offense but we did do a good job of covering the backside," Miller said. "They just missed on a few tips. They had a few backdoor plays and a few bounces off the end wall that could have gone in the net but we had guys battling for the puck and kept [them] out of the crease and that's what we needed on a night like this."
Buffalo failed to add to its 3-0 lead during a four-minute power play that arose from Patrick Kaleta being Patrick Kaleta. The Sabres winger tangled with defenseman Denis Gauthier Jr. behind the Kings' net, began to skate up ice, then turned back in Gauthier's direction. Wham! Gauthier dropped his gloves and landed a solid right that dropped Kaleta to his knees and sent him to the locker room.
He did not return for the third period, and coach Lindy Ruff said afterward that Kaleta is suffering from the same problems with his eyesight he experienced during a recent seven-game absence. Ruff also called for a Gauthier suspension, although that seems unlikely under the circumstances.
A pair of struggling Sabres, right wing Maxim Afinogenov and defenseman Nathan Paetsch, spent the night out of uniform. Andrew Peters got the call in place of Afinogenov while 22-year-old Chris Butler was summoned from Portland to take Paetsch's spot. Butler picked up his first NHL point with an assist on Mair's goal.
Paul Gaustad, who missed practice Thursday, was scratched with what the team is calling an upper-body injury. Ellis returned from Portland to fill the void. The Sabres already were without forwards Nathan Gerbe and Tim Connolly and defenseman Craig Rivet.
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