Sabres' Miller slams the door on Senators
Ryan Miller allowed the Buffalo Sabres' nemesis into the game. There was no way he was going to let them win it.
The Sabres goaltender made a mistake that gave life to the Ottawa Senators, the one team that doesn't need help to make Buffalo sweat. He made up for it. Miller stopped the final 19 shots he faced after a bad 32-second shift, and the Sabres beat their archrival, 4-2, in a game that had plenty of bite.
The Sabres were rolling Tuesday night before 18,443 fans in HSBC Arena, looking just like the team that had two straight wins on the road. Then came Miller's miscue. Jason Spezza banked in a shot from behind the goal line, and the commanding 3-0 lead was trimmed to 3-1.
When Spezza scored on a breakaway 32 seconds later, it looked like the team on a 16-5-4 run against the Sabres was going to give them nightmares again.
Miller would have none of it, as he finished with 31 saves, including 11 in the third period. Thomas Vanek sealed the game into an empty net with 26.8 seconds left.
"You better win after a goal like that," Miller said. "It was just a bad goal. I tried to shake it off, but that's the equivalent of a bad shift for me. I had that whole shift against Spezza's line, and I let them score twice. That was just a really bad shift. Whereas these guys get to go off the ice and reset, I needed to reset and get back to work. I was able to hold tight."
Miller's best stop came with 4:25 left, when his glove save robbed Spezza from the left circle.
A hat trick would have been too much for Miller to handle. The line of Spezza, Dany Heatley and Daniel Alfredsson combined for five points on the night, giving them 12 in two games against the Sabres this season.
"Two [goals] is enough for him," Miller said. "I don't need anything else that they can say to me. Heatley talks enough out there, and we don't need Spezza talking, too."
The Senators, who have one game left on an eight-game road trip, were practically begging to be sent packing after 26 minutes. Actually, they may have been looking forward to the next stop, Boston, after only 15 seconds.
It was a good bet the score would be 1-0 after the first shift of the game. It was, but few would have wagered on the Sabres. They sent out Matt Ellis, Paul Gaustad and Jason Pominville against the Senators' big three … and they dominated the Senators.
Gaustad hammered defenseman Brendan Bell along the boards, and Alfredsson coughed up the loose puck. Gaustad spotted Ellis in the slot, and the sudden-sniper beat Alex Auld just 15 seconds into the game. Ellis has seven career goals, and three have come in the past two games.
The Sabres' top line (Derek Roy, Vanek and Drew Stafford) showed it didn't want to be outshined at home, scoring the next two goals.
Stafford drove the net with 3:59 left in the first, and Roy crashed the net 5:29 into the second.
It appeared the Sabres' struggles against Ottawa were taking the night off. Alas, when these teams are involved, it's never wise to count out the Senators. Spezza, Alfredsson and Heatley showed why.
"Those kind of bounces you've got to expect from the big line because they usually get those," Sabres defenseman Jaroslav Spacek said. "In the beginning of the season, we probably would have gave up this lead, give them the chance to come back in this game. In the third we played much better, protect the puck and played a smart game to the end."
The teams have been bitter toward each other for years, and another chapter was added when Ottawa's Jarkko Ruutu bit Andrew Peters on the right thumb during a first-period scuffle. srum.
"We've got a guy getting bitten out there," Miller said. "It's a heck of a rivalry."
And this time it was the Sabres who skated home with their thumbs up.
"Finally," Spacek said. "We were waiting for this for a long time."
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