Home finale ends with loss to Sens

Recap

The Sabres didn’t quite get the outcome they wanted for fan appreciation night.

Buffalo started the night off on the right foot as Ryan O’Reilly ripped the puck right past Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson, 30 seconds into the game.

O’Reilly now has seven points in the last six games and Sam Reinhart, with the assist, brought his streak to six points in the last four games.

The Senators were quick to strike back as Max McCormick tied the game up at 2:56. Ottawa then took the 2-1 lead at 6:10 with a goal from Matt Duchene. After a lot of back and forth on the ice, the period ended at 2-1.

The second period was another game of back and fourth, this time Ottawa brought the heat, gaining the 2 point lead. After losing Marco Scandella to a tripping call, Buffalo was down a player making it easy for Ryan Dzingel to find an opening and score on the power play at 3:41. Kyle Okposo would bring the deficit up by one point, scoring at 16:41 but it wasn’t enough for the Sabres to get back into the game.

In the third period, all hope was lost for the Sabres and coach Phil Housley gave Chad Johnson the cue to leave the net with about 1:30 remaining. Alexandre Burrows took this chance to score with less than 40 seconds remaining in the period. Ottawa left the Sabres fans disappointed, sealing the 4-2 victory in the last game at KeyBank Center this season. 

“It’s disappointing. We get the start we wanted, we think it’s going to be easy. I don’t think we got enough out of our players. We wanted to give more to our fans. By the time we had a push, it was too late.” – Phil Housley

Johnson allowed three goals on 31 shots, while Craig Anderson was made 32 saves on 34 shots.

Casey Mittelstadt booked another assist tonight, his third of the season since starting last month.

Buffalo has two games remaining, both taking place in Florida this weekend. They will play the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and the Florida Panthers on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Scoring

 

Penalties

Abbi Kamano
Abbi Kamano
Penn State Alumni. Faithful & optimistic Sabres fan. On my journey to a full-time hockey career.
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