The Ottawa Senators took a 3-2 overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres at the Canadian Tire Centre in Canada’s capital on Thursday night. Mike Hoffman blasted a perfect shot past a sprawling Robin Lehner to give the Senators the win just over a minute into the extra session. Matt Duchene’s push into Buffalo’s zone and Erik Karlsson’s smooth pass to Hoffman broke the Sabres four-game road winning streak. The Sabres nearly had the two points locked up, but a late goal from Derick Brassard evened the score at two with 31 seconds remaining in the third period. Overtime has been a problem for Buffalo all year as they fall to 3-10 after 60 minutes. They also have 21 one-goal losses. “We got exactly what we deserved. The compete, the battles, they won the majority of them.” – Phil Housley The Sabres opened the scoring early in the first as Scott Wilson got his fifth goal of the season and third in his last four games after a nice pass from Johan Larsson. Evan Rodrigues scored the other Buffalo goal after a pass from Kyle Okposo, and with a quick release, he was able to capitalize, beating goaltender Craig Anderson. At the other end, there was no one blaming Lehner for the loss after he made 33 saves. “He kept us in the game. Those are the games you like to win for your goalie. Maybe we’re not playing our best and you find a way to win for him. We were really close and you want to find the way to close out and win for him.” – Rodrigues The other Ottawa goal came from Marion Gaborik in his Senators debut. He deflected a shot in front of the net to tally his eighth goal of the season. Matt Duchene assisted on every Senators goal. The Sabres are back on home ice on Saturday to take on the Los Angeles Kings. Puck drop is slated for 1 p.m.
Recap
Scoring
Penalties
