The Buffalo Sabres headed into the Nassau Coliseum this evening to take on the New York Islanders, looking to snap their seven-game road losing streak.
Throughout the first period, the Sabres and Islanders played a lot of the same hockey. Both sides played hard but neither team was able to gain the upper hand. That would change 13 minutes into the period when Matt Moulson caught the Sabres defense off guard and scored the game’s first goal.
Heading into the second period, the Sabres were looking for a pick-me-up and that would come from recently recalled defenseman Joe Finley. After Islanders winger Matt Martin hit Derek Roy, Finley took exception to the hit and challenged Martin to a fight. Following the scrap, the energy was shifted to the Sabres.
Less than four minutes after the fight, Patrick Kaleta would score the Sabres first goal of the night at 14:48.
The Islanders would take the lead back shortly after Kyle Okposo scored his 11th goal of the season on a tip-in.
42 seconds later, at 16:58 in the second, the Sabres re-tied the game after Derek Roy scored his first goal in 8 games.
Going into the third period, the momentum seemed to be in the Sabres favor. Throughout the entire period, both teams had their chances and the momentum shifted back each teams’ way but the Islanders would grab the momentum for good after Michael Grabner scored the Islanders’ third goal of the night at 16:57 in the period.
With less than two minutes left in the game, Mark Streit accidently dislodged the goal which lead to a Sabres penalty shot, which was taken by Thomas Vanek.
Vanek had Nabokov beaten but shot the puck just a little to the left and the puck ricocheted off the left goal post.
Shortly after this penalty shot, the Sabres pulled Jhonas Enroth for the extra forward but it wouldn’t matter because the Islanders put the game away when Michael Grabner scored an empty netter, his second goal of the game and 13th of the season.
The Sabres will play again on Monday night in Detroit versus the Red Wings. The game will be broadcast on MSG at 7:30 PM.