On Thursday night, the Buffalo Sabres were looking to take the home-and-home series with the Ottawa Senators. After another hard fought defensive battle, Buffalo could not come up with the win tonight, falling to the Senators 2-1.
Bobby Ryan gave Ottawa the 1-0 lead early, but Tyler Ennis later tied the game in the first period. In the second, Zack Smith gave Ottawa the lead. From there, Craig Anderson shut the door on Buffalo and made 40 saves to preserve the win. Buffalo now falls to 7-23-2 on the season.
Tyler Ennis continues his hot streak, scoring his third goal in four games tonight. Ennis had seven shots on goal and led all Sabres forwards with 21:43 of total ice-time. More importantly, Ennis appears to have found a spark in his overall game. Ennis has been skating and fore-checking well, but has also stepped up his physical and defensive game to help the team stay in games.
“I thought we played well. It was a good game for us,” said Ennis. “I think we outplayed them. A lot of good effort from our guys, we just couldn’t fine the net.”
The Sabres were able to put up over 40 shots for the first time all season, but were only able to get one past Craig Anderson tonight. Ennis led the team with seven shots, Drew Stafford had six shots, Christian Ehrhoff had five, and Matt D’Agostini had four shots on net.
Ted Nolan was impressed by his team’s performance tonight. “I thought since I’ve been here, I think this has been our best effort. Guys are competing, they’re working,” said Nolan. “Everything was there for us except for the result.”
Drew Stafford also believes the effort was there tonight for the Sabres. “Bottom line is we’re a lot different team. We’re competing more, we’re getting the chances,” said Stafford following the loss.
Up next for Buffalo will be the Calgary Flames on Saturday afternoon. Calgary now faces a similar situation as the Sabres with no general manager. Opening faceoff is expected at 2:05pm from the First Niagara Center. The game can be seen on MSG and heard on WGR 550 AM.