The Sabres continued their Pacific trip in San Jose on Friday night. Once again, Buffalo was in another low scoring game, but this time they were able to pull out a tight 3-1 victory of the Sharks.
The first period did not start how Buffalo wanted with Marc-Edoard Vlasic beating Chad Johnson with a wrist shot up high to give San Jose a 1-0 lead just 1:28 into the period. The period was relatively slow with Buffalo outshooting San Jose, 7-6.
The second period continued the same as the first with quiet play and neither team making a mistake with no penalties in the period. The only goal scored was by Buffalo when Brian Gionta made a nice play to steal a puck on the right-side and fire a quick shot on Martin Jones. Jones failed to cover the puck in time and Johan Larsson dove to whack in the loose puck free in the center of the crease to tie the game at 1-1. San Jose out shot Buffalo 9-8 for the second period.
In the third period San Jose was getting the better of the chances keeping constant pressure in the Buffalo zone. But with a little more then seven to go Buffalo setup in the San Jose zone and with Sam Reinhart screening Martin Jones, Zach Bogosian shot the puck from the right blue line which Tomas Hertl of San Jose accidentally deflected in.
San Jose kept the pressure on from there requiring Chad Johnson to make some quick saves. With two minutes to go the Sharks pulled their goaltender to try and tie the game. It was also the first time all night either team had a man advantage. Buffalo however ended any San Jose rally with an empty net goal by Evander Kane.
Chad Johnson after the first goal settled right down finishing the night with 24 saves on 25 shots.
Martin Jones for San Jose made 19 saves on 21 shots respectfully.
Buffalo returns to action tomorrow night against the Los Angeles Kings at 11 p.m. EST