MILLER MAKES 40 SAVES TO LEAD TO A 3-1 SABRES WIN AGAINST MONTREAL

GOAL SCORERS

BUF:   J. Leopold (12:11 - 2nd) , T. Vanek (19:57 - 2nd) , C. Ehrhoff (EN, 19:31 - 3rd)

MTL:   R. Diaz (02:08 - 2nd)

GOALIES

BUF: R. Miller (W)

 MTL: C. Price (L)

         
                  Last night in Montreal, the Habs took on the Sabres in search of their second win of this young NHL season. Just 9 seconds in the Habs got a quick start, Myers gave the puck away right to Pacioretty behind the Sabres net and Pacioretty took the puck to the net and he was stopped twice by Miller. Then late in the first, with the Habs on a powerplay, Gomez was stopped at the side of the net but he played the puck to Subban (on the Right) and his shot was stopped by Miller. The shots were 14-3 in favor of the Canadiens after the first in a 0-0 tie. 2 minutes into the second, Diaz got the puck in the Sabres zone (on the right) and he took the puck to the net and went from backhand to forehand and he scored to give the Habs a 1-0 lead with his first NHL goal.

                 10 minutes later, Staffords shot was stopped by Price but Leopold put home the rebound to tie the game at 1-1. Then with 10 seconds to go, the faceoff was to the right in the Habs zone. The Sabres won the faceoff and a wide open Vanek got the puck on the left. Vanek took a slap shot and scored with 2.8 seconds to go to give Buffalo a 2-1 lead. There was no defensive coverage on Vanek on that play that left him right in the open. Price came right onto the white ice which gave Vanek the whole net and he delivered with a goal. So the Sabres had a 2-1 lead after 2 even though the shots were 16-12 Montreal in the second.

             So with the score 2-1, late in the third, Ehroff would add and empty net goal to make it 3-1. That would be your final as Miller would make 11 saves in the third and 40 overall to steal one for the Sabres. In the loss, Carey Price fell short of his 100th win once more as he made 20 saves on 22 shots."Ryan basically stole us this one," said Sabres captain Jason Pominville. "He played great.He's been playing great for a while now and you get to know what to expect out of him. He comes in to battle. He never gives up on any shot. He made a couple of big saves to keep us in there. Our penalty killing was pretty good. And we were fortunate to score when we needed to."

       "To me, we played the way we need to play," Martin said. "We got the puck behind the defence, we forechecked, we got good chances. But sometimes you don't get the result.I like how we played. We've played four excellent periods in a row and we have to keep it going." The Habs need to start wining and fast as in the first 5 games their record is 1-3-1. It's a bad record mostly due to minor type defense. As the Habs are missing 3 key defenders in, Campoli (out for 3-4 months), Spacek ( out for 2-3 weeks) and Markov (Expected to be back in December). So the Habs are going to have to make a trade or call up another minor league player if the Habs are going to contend for a playoff spot. The one thing the Habs don't want is to go into the new year with a losing record. So they will need to improve on defense if they are going to avoid that.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo