Lalime Solid in Sens' Win
The Buffalo Sabres dominated the Ottawa Senators in every aspect of their preseason game Friday night except the scoreboard. Buffalo out-shot one of the best defensive teams in hockey by a 30-18 margin, but were unable to solve Ottawa netminder Patrick Lalime as he shut out the Sabres for a 1-0 victory.
Joe Murphy scored the only goal on the evening on a deflection of Curtis Leschyn point at the 6:55 mark of the second period.
"It was kind of my fault. I went to the play the puck and everyone was changing at the time, and I got a little mixed up and couldn't really see where the puck was; and I saw it coming on my blocker side and tried to bring it back, but it went through my five-hole," said Sabres goaltender Martin Biron.
In the regular season, the Sabres might have been more concerned with their lack of goal production. Being the first game of the preseason, however, Buffalo looked sharp and ahead of schedule, and were happy about their effort.
"If you look up and down the roster, everyone had some great chances tonight, and we ran into Lalime. You got to give him a tip of the cap for a great game tonight," said Sabres forward Curtis Brown, who was stoned on a breakaway in the opening minute of the first period.
"I think overall what we did was gain a lot of confidence, knowing we can create a lot of chances against one of the best defensive teams in the league," said Brown.
Martin Biron, in his first season as the Sabres starting goaltender, stopped 17 of 18 shots.
The game was delayed at the 10-minute mark of the first period, as the team paid a moving tribute to the nearly 4,000 firefighters and policeman who attended the game courtesy of the Sabres.
Kozlov's Late Goal Lifts Sabres to First Win
The Sabres played their second preseason game Saturday night to much better results as they defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3.
Vyacheslav Kozlov, who was acquired from the Detroit Red Wings in the Domink Hasek trade, scored the game-winning goal on a power play with 4:58 remaining in regulation play.
Koslov tipped in a shot from the point by defenseman Jason Woolley past Columbus goaltender Marc Denis for the final tally.
"Hey, it's good to get a win. I'd take a 4-3 win over a 0-0 tie any day," said Buffalo backup goalie Bob Essensa.
Essensa earned 22 saves for Buffalo, making a note-worthy stop on a Ray Whitney breakaway. Denis recorded 24 saves for the Blue Jackets.
The Sabres appeared to have control over the game early on as they took the lead after rookie Norm Milley swatted the puck from the air into the net with 6:58 left in the first period.
"Our line likes to do our style, bump and grind. Tonight we played hard," said Milley.
The Sabres, however, ran into problems early on as Columbus scored two consecutive, nearly identical goals over Essensa's glove hand, giving them the lead going into the second period.
Defenseman Jason Woolley evened the score for Buffalo at the 10:04 mark of the second period with a power play goal.
Tied at two heading in to the third period, the Sabres and Blue Jackets traded a pair of goals that resulted from errors made by the men between the pipes.
Buffalo took a 3-2 lead when Denis left the crease to clear the puck out and rifled it out into open ice right into the body of Denis Hamel, who promptly dropped it, and flicked it into an open net.
The error was erased, however, when Mattias Timander of Columbus batted the puck high in the air in front of the Sabres net. Essensa lost sight of the puck, and allowed it to trickle between his legs to even the score at three.
Sabres Head Coach Lindy Ruff was pleased with his offense after a disappointing loss to Ottawa the night before. Buffalo scored on three of their five power play chances, after a 0 for 8 performance Friday night.
"We got a few opportunistic chances," said Ruff. "It's nice to see some goals going in tonight."
