Buffalo Sabres end three-game slide, overtake Washington Capitals 4-2 -NHL Update
Buffalo finally ended its three-game losing streak on Monday, December 26, 2011, as the Sabres routed Capitals, 4-2, at the sold out First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York, United States.
Washington has now lost two in a row, the previous one being before the Christmas weekend against New Jersey Devils, 4-3, in a shootout decider, which puts them in the 11th number spot in the Eastern Conference, while Buffalo moved up into ninth
place with 37 points.
Sabres veteran goalie, Ryan Miller, had been struggling in the net for the past few matches but the Buffalo management decided to keep on playing him until he found his game, which was luckily tonight against Washington.
Miller made 20 of 22 saves while the Capitals shuffled their goalie line with Michal Neuvirth being substituted by Tomas Vokoun after letting three goals in the opening 11 minutes to slide past him.
"I thought that was a great example of the type of hockey we've been talking about for a while", Miller said. "It was quick hockey, move the puck, and support each other. It showed in that first period where we got out of our zone clean, we got into their
zone clean, we made things happen and got rewarded for it".
Jason Pominville kicked off the scoring with his 12th of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season on an early power play with Roman Hamrlik being booked for delaying the game only nine seconds in.
"We got everybody going early, we got the fans into it, and we got the bench going," Pominville said of the early spurt. "You always want to get that first goal, and for us to get it that early was huge for the team.
The Buffalo offence caught fire after Pominville’s opener as Matt Ellis added another on a breakaway opportunity followed by Christian Ehrhoff midway through and Brayden McNabb on another power play to give the Sabres a more than comfortable lead heading
into the final 40 minutes of game play.
Matt Hendricks finally put Washington on the scoreboard with his first of the season at the 19:43 mark in the second while Alex Ovechkin potted another midway through the third on a power play for their last.
Buffalo hopes to keep the momentum going when they head off to New Jersey to face the Devils on Wednesday while Washington has some catching up to do when they host New York Rangers on the same day.
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