Buffalo Bests Blueshirts

I attended college outside Buffalo, New York. Believe me when I say, the Sabres and the Bills are a way of life to Buffalo and neighboring residents. Buffalo just endured the longest losing streak in the history of the franchise. Fans can’t be too ecstatic with those results. Perhaps Sunday, the Sabres made up their temporary collapse. The Sabres sit in first place in the Northeast, and last night scratched out an overtime win at Madison Square Garden against the Rangers .Buffalo topped New York 2-1 Sunday on Patrick Kaleta’s goal 2:22 into the extra session, spoiling a Rangers comeback. Goalie, Ryan Miller, made 35 saves in the win. It was the second time in as many games Miller was in goal for an overtime Sabres victory. Tim Connolly scored the game winner that beat the Flyers Friday night in Buffalo. That win leapfrogged the Sabres past the Senators into first place again. The Rangers fell to 29-28-9.
The score remained scoreless after two periods of hockey last night before Buffalo’s Adam Mair came through with the game’s first goal. Mair netted the puck past 28 year old, Henrik Lundqvist, fourteen minutes into the third period. New York’s Brandon Dubinsky rescued the Blueshirts from their second straight shutout in two days. Dubinsky tied the game with 1:23 left in regulation. His 16th goal of the season was the first in eight periods for the dejected Rangers. The power play equalizer by Dubinsky was poked past Miller on a rebound of Michael Del Zotto’s shot. Regulation concluded in a stalemate.
The Rangers are in ninth place, two points behind Boston in the standings. Both the Bruins and Atlanta lost last night. New York earned only one point in Sunday night’s loss and Kaleta extended their losing streak to three games. He was inserted into the game in a rare overtime appearance. The 23 year old Angola, New York native, banked a rebound off Lundqvist in overtime to give the Sabres their third win in eleven games. Kaleta’s goal took the air out of the Garden crowd and painted a dismal picture for the Rangers’ playoff hopes. New York still has an outside chance at making the postseason with 16 games remaining on the slate. The Rangers are 1-6 in overtime games this season and have ten road games remaining to right the slumping ship.
Sunday night pitted two Olympic goalies against each other and goaltending dominated the first two periods. Both goalies performed admirably. Lundqvist was outdueled by Miller, but was also pressured more in net. Buffalo struggled to solve a solid Lundqvist until the fourth liners got involved. The Rangers’ backstopped made 30 saves. Offense was tough to come by for the Sabres. They relied on two unexpected heroes in Mair and Kaleta last night. Marion Gaborik was ineffective, but logged 20 minutes for New York after returning from a groin ailment. The Rangers notched 17 goals during Gaborik’s absence. The top-line forward’s return seemed to put a stop to the offensive surge.

Parting Points: Those UConn women are too good. Will they ever lose? I bet there are no hurt lockers in that locker room.

Kudos to the Magic for dropping the Lakers yet again.