Buffalo Sabres win second straight beat Montreal Canadiens 3-1 -NHL Match Update
Montreal Canadiens suffered their third straight loss of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season and up until now have won only one game, losing to Buffalo Sabres, 3-1, Tuesday night, October 18, 2011, at the sold-out Bell Centre in Montreal,
Quebec, Canada.
Missing a number of top players like Mike Cammalleri, Jaroslav Spacek, Chris Campoli, Andrei Markov and Ryan White, Montreal has suffered a blow to their line-up which is hurting them immensely at the moment.
Not having those players did not stop Montreal from shooting and ultimately, it was Buffalo’s veteran goalie, Ryan Miller, who played miraculously as the Canadiens outshot the Sabres, 41-23, with Miller amazingly diverting 40 of them.
"Ryan basically stole us this one", Sabres captain, Jason Pominville, said. "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".
Compared to their previous matchups, Montreal played better than past performances by taking more shots on the net and taking control of the puck more often, but it still was not enough to crack Miller’s defence.
"To me, we played the game the way we needed to play”, Canadiens coach, Jacques Martin, said. "We put pucks behind their (defense), we forechecked, we created chances. But sometimes you don't control the result".
Montreal goalie, Carey Price, still looking forward to his 100th career win, faced only 22 shots and fell short on two for a total of 20 saves.
Raphael Diaz scored the first during the second period after a scoreless initial 20 minute round. Jordan Leopold tied the match for Buffalo nearly 10 minutes later, while Thomas Vanek made the game-winner with three seconds in the period remaining to play.
Christian Ehrhoff, the former Vancouver Canucks defenseman, potted the insurance goal with 29 seconds remaining in the final period as Montreal failed to level the match, thus losing another.
Sabres play their next game against Florida Panthers on Thursday while Canadiens head off to Pittsburgh the same day to face-off with the Penguins.
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