Jared Cowen makes game-winner in Overtime to lift Ottawa Senators to victory over Buffalo Sabres 3-2
Ottawa made a miraculous shot to keep themselves alive in the third period and force an overtime extension and another chance to get back into the contest, while Jared Cowen followed up quickly in OT to lift the Senators over the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2, on Tuesday night, December 13, 2011, at the sold out First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York, United States.
The Senators attempted at taking the lead, early in the opening period, but Buffalo came right back with two straight and dominated the next 30 minutes of the contest.
Buffalo Sabres' goalie, Ryan Miller, faced a tough time in the net, facing 44 shots throughout the 60 minute contest, out of which he managed to block 41, while his counterpart in the Senators' net, Craig Anderson, had to block only 29 and diverted 27 of those attempts.
"We've been nowhere near good enough at home all year," Miller said. "I don't think it's time to panic, but it's time to build the game that we need to be competitive and be a playoff-calibre team."
Milan Michalek potted his 19th goal of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season only 1:09 into the opening period which was followed by Buffalo’s Paul Szczechura for his first and Tyler Ennis, a little over a minute apart, in the final minutes of the first round, to take the lead.
Buffalo managed to keep Ottawa out of their net in the next 20 minute period and did a good job doing the same in the final period as well, but as the Sabres failed to pot any more to secure the contest, Peter Regin of the Senators scored his second at the 7:27 mark to tie the match and force another life in overtime.
Jared Cowen scored miraculously in the opening 45 seconds of overtime to wash out all of Sabres' hard work and take the match.
"I just went to the net and Karlsson saw me, a great pass and I just touched it in there," Cowen said of his third career goal and first game-winner. "When I was going down, I was thinking it was a gamble, wasn't sure if I should be there. Obviously it worked out."
Ottawa has the next against the Penguins at home while Buffalo will be facing the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday.
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