The Sabres came into Boston coming off of a 7-1 victory over Tampa Bay two nights before. The Sabres were without Thomas Vanek, Tim Connolly, Raffi Torres, and Patrick Kaleta.
Head Coach Lindy Ruff wasn’t worried a bit about the team. He had confidence in the players that were recalled from Portland.
Nathan Gerbe, Tyler Ennis, and Mark Mancari all be replaced the injured Sabres as Buffalo tried to find a way to beat Boston. The Bruins won three out of the first four meetings this season.
Marco Sturm had the first chance of the game to put his team on the board after drawing a penalty shot. He was hooked down by Craig Rivet while on a breakaway, but was unable to beat Ryan Miller on the penalty shot.
David Krejci capitalized on his scoring chance after the Sabres turned the puck over. Krejci slid the puck past Miller as he ended up behind the net by the time he scored, giving the Bruins a 1-0 lead.
The Sabres responded with a goal from Tyler Myers. Myers let the shot go from the point, and it found its way past Tim Thomas to tie the game at one. Paul Gaustad added another Buffalo goal by putting home a rebound. Both of these goals resulted from a simple play of just putting the puck on net.
Tim Kennedy scored the third Sabres goal of the night on a one-timer. The goal caused the Bruins to pull Thomas and replace him with Tuukka Rask. Jason Pominville had a tremendous opportunity to score on a short-handed breakaway, but Rask made the save.
In the third period Derek Roy also had a breakaway chance, but Rask didn’t bite on the fake, and was able to stop the backhand shot, keeping the Bruins in the game. Dennis Seidendberg took a shot that bounced off of Miller and trickled into the net, cutting the Sabres lead in half with five minutes to play.
Boston continued to put pressure on in the offensive zone, but couldn’t tie the game. Miller finished with 40 saves on 42 shots as he earned the victory.
The Sabres have yet to lose a game this season when leading after two periods. Boston is desperate for points as they sit in eighth place in the Eastern Conference. They hold a two point lead over Atlanta, but only trail the Flyers by two as well. The Thrashers lost to Carolina by a score of 4-1.