March Madness blew into Buffalo in lake effect fashion on Thursday night.
This game had it all!
70 shots. 36 for Buffalo.
61 hits. 30 by Buffalo.
9 goals. 5 by Sabres.
2 heavyweight fights.
The forecast called for heavy hockey. Boy, we're got lake effect pugilism thats for sure.
Simulataneous scraps featuring Scott-McLaren and Kaleta-Orr.
Thanks, hockey-fights.com
After the bar fight's a fire wagon hockey game broke out.....
65 minutes of rock-em-sick-em robots
A folk hero grinder scored the shootout winner in dramatic fashion.
This game exceeded the advanced billing befitting of the Sabres-Leafs rivalry.
This wasn’t a game. It was an alleyway bar fight.
The team that scored last won.
“I thought tonight that the crowd support was huge, they made it feel like a playoff atmosphere. I mean I had chills all over me, I’m sure it was that way for all of us. It was intense. It was a fun, fun atmosphere”, a jubilant Steve Ott said in the victors locker room. Ott scored the game winner in round six of the skills contest, thusly jamming the knife threw the heart of the Leafs, and twisting it for good measure.
“They (the Leafs) are a physical team guys. Lets face it, they are physical. I wouldn’t say one of the toughest. You know, we matched size for size, hit for hit, I thought that it was a 4-4 game and a shootout . But, at the end of it all, a playoff game, could have gone either way throughout. That was one of the fun ones you get to play in”.
On Thursday morning after the skate, I spoke with Ott about his keys for the Leafs game. He told me that it would come down to denying Kadri, Kessel, et all time and space, and limiting their inside play. Like they had in the Montreal victory on Tuesday night.
Roger that.
“You know what? I loved our attention to detail today. We really emphasized getting pucks in and not turning pucks over at the blue lines. I can’t even remember too many strong ones at the blue lines. Our guys continued to chip in behind their defense, putting a good fore check on. That’s how you eliminate speed in this league. You have to get it back and make those teams go 200 feet and you make them earn it. That pace all the way throughout, I thought was impressive”, Ott told me.
Talk about clutch. That was about as big a win as the Sabres have had this season. Twice, they crawled out of the dumpster, trailing by two goals, and tied the game. Beating Montreal and Toronto back-to-back has revealed a lot of character and moxy. Ott says that his boys deserve the credit for their attention to details.
“ That’s character. Its what we’ve been telling one another. Its been a month since Ron has come in and we’ve tried to clean up details. We’ve worked hard at it in practice. We’ve put in a lot of video sessions and we’ve been in a lot of close games. If you notice, every single game is close, that means something is going right for us and we are continuing to do things. Now we’re starting to reap the rewards”.
Christian Ehrhoff had a goal and two assists for Buffalo. He finally buckled dpwn and put his thunderous point shot on the net. Ehrhoff missed the net a couple of times in the first and second periods. Just 22 seconds into the third period, Ehrhoff gave Buffalo the 4-3 lead when he buried a blast behind Leafs goalie James Reimer.
The Sabres have now won consecutive games for only the fourth time this season.
Tyler Ennis had a goal and an assist, and Marcus Foligno and Jason Pominville also scored.
Next stop: Montreal
***
The Buffalo power play now has scored PPGs in there consecutive game. Ott tipped his bucket to Ehrhoff for leading the way vs. the Leafs.
“I thought that “Hoff” was great tonight. He got that big bomb to go up 4-3when we needed it when we came out of the dressing room to start the third period. Enzo had that one too (time had expired in penalty and 63s goal was 5 on 5). Those were key for us. We keep working on the power play and its paying dividends”.
***
Steve Ott scores the winner in the shootout? Are you serious Rolston?
Ott told me after the game: “We all work on skill shots in practice. It reminded me of juniors all over again, being the man with the game winner in clutch time”.
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