The Buffalo Sabres traveled to Vancouver on Friday night looking to end a miserable streak of 13 straight regulation losses against the Canucks. The streak dates back to the team’s last win on December 27, 2014 against the New York Islanders. In the team’s first game against former goaltender Ryan Miller, the former Sabre prevails over his former team 5-2 at Rogers Arena.
For the fifth consecutive game, the Sabres got out to a 1-0 lead thanks to Chris Stewart in the first period. Bo Horvat tied the game with less than a minute left in the first period.
In the second period, Vancouver took a 3-1 lead with powerplay goals from Yannick Weber and Nick Bonino. Chris Stewart scored his ninth goal, and second of the game, late in the second to make it a one goal game heading into the intermission.
In the third period, it was all Vancouver as the Canucks outshot the Sabres 15-6 and added another two goals just for good measure.
Ryan Miller, in his first game against his former team, makes 20 saves on 22 shots faced and gets the victory over the Sabres. With the win over Buffalo, Miller has now beaten every team in the NHL in his career.
For Chris Stewart, he finished the game with both goals for the Sabres (both on the powerplay), five shots, one hit and a minus-2 in 21:18 of total ice-time. Over the past five games for Stewart, he has registered four goals and two assists for the Sabres.
Sabres goalie Matt Hackett made 33 saves on 37 shots faced in his first action since April 12 when he tore his ACL against the Bruins.
For the Sabres, the team will head back east to play the Canadiens on Tuesday in Montréal before returning home to play the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night. The Sabres and Canucks will meet next on February 26, when Ryan Miller returns to Buffalo for the first time since he was traded eleven months ago to St. Louis.
Tuesday’s face-off is set for 7:30pm, and the game can be seen on MSG Network.