Out-shot. Out-chanced. Out-scored. That pretty much sums up the Buffalo Sabres’ effort on Monday night in the Lone Star State.
In a game in which the Sabres held a lead on three separate occasions, the team falls to the Dallas Stars 4-3 at the American Airlines Center.
Buffalo got to a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal from Brian Gionta, but went into the first period tied 1-1. Gionta was credited for his second goal of the game on the powerplay, which gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead heading into the third period.
In the third period, Dallas tied the Sabres not once, but twice before Cody Eakin gave the Stars a 4-3 lead with 3:14 left to go in the third period. Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen would shut the door on any Sabres comeback to help lift Dallas past the Sabres.
The main storyline of the game was the number of chances the Stars put up on the Sabres. Dallas outshot the Sabres 39-28 on the night, however, the Stars put 101 shots towards the net on the game compared to Buffalo’s 49. The Sabres ended up a minus-52 Corsi rating in the game, which ties a season high on the year set on February 2 against the Montreal Canadiens. The only difference was the Sabres won that game against the Canadiens.
Anders Lindback made 35 saves in his first game in Dallas since the trade that sent him to Buffalo in exchange for Jhonas Enroth. Unfortunately, Lindback’s effort was not enough to help the Sabres in the loss.
Buffalo’s captain Brian Gionta was electric on the ice for the Sabres scoring the first two goals for the team and added a team-high seven shots. Gionta also had two hits and three blocked shots in 23:32 of total ice-time.
Buffalo’s other goal scorer, Matt Moulson, finished the game with his goal, an assist, one shot, and a blocked hit in 20:09 of total ice-time.
For the Sabres, the team had 43 blocked shots on the evening, with eight of them coming from Mike Weber and Tyson Strachan each.
The Sabres now fall to 20-46-7, and have lost 10 of its last eleven games. Up next for the Sabres is a meeting with the 29th place Arizona Coyotes, who will play in Detroit against the Red Wings on Tuesday. The Coyotes are only three points ahead of the Sabres in the standings.
Opening face-off is set for 7pm, and the game can be seen on MSG Network.