The Sabres improved to 2-0 under new owner Terry Pegula with a 4-2 victory over Ottawa on Friday. After a 47 save shutout performance in his debut with Ottawa, Craig Anderson earned his first loss as a Senator.
Mike Grier put Buffalo on the board six and a half minutes in, converting on a breakaway. The Sabres went up by two midway through the second period when Cody McCormick notched his eighth goal of the season.
After Buffalo failed on a 4-on-1 rush, Jason Spezza accepted a breakaway pass, and beat Ryan Miller to cut the lead in half.
Patrick Kaleta appeared to score the Sabres third goal of the game, but was called for an arguable goaltender interference penalty. Kaleta redirected the puck into the net, but after review, the call went against Buffalo.
A 2-on-1 rush led to the Sabres third goal of the game. Drew Stafford took the initial shot, and Jochen Hecht banged home the rebound to put the Sabres up by two.
Milan Michalek made things interesting with just a couple of minutes to goal. His goal brought the Senators within one. Ottawa pulled the goaltender, but the strategy backfired as Thomas Vanek scored the empty net goal to give Buffalo a 4-2 win. Ryan Miller recorded an assist on the goal.
The Sabres took a 2-1 lead into the third period. Buffalo improved to 16-0-1 when leading after two periods and the Senators fell to 0-19-4 when trailing after two periods.
The Sabres threw 38 shots on Anderson, who stopped 35 of them. At the other end, Miller stopped 29 of 31 shots.
The Sabres didn’t get much help from out of town games. Carolina defeated Pittsburgh and the Rangers beat Washington. Buffalo remains three points out and hosts Detroit on Saturday. A loss against Ottawa on Friday would have put the Sabres five points back. With two wins in a row, the Sabres could benefit from a huge two points against the Red Wings on Saturday.