Sabres 3, Canucks 2
It took awhile for things to get interesting at Rogers Arena on Tuesday night. OK, to be honest, it never really got that interesting.
The game was highlighted early by a lot of bad passes, a handful of them from Canucks centre Elias Pettersson.
Tage Thompson opened the scoring for the visitors late in the first period with his 21st goal of the season. Remarkably, for a team with only 13 wins coming in, the Sabres have opened the scoring in games 30 times this season.
The Canucks answered early in the 2nd period when Phil Di Giuseppe banged home a big carom off the end boards at 3:05.
Petey redeemed some confidence by putting Vancouver up 2-1 at 10:29. It was the type of snipe we’re used to seeing from him: Top shelf from the edge of the left face-off circle. Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen didn’t have a chance.
The energy picked up a bit simply because the crowd was happy.
Things became a bit quieter when Vancouver left Buffalo forward Jiri Kulich all alone in front of the net off a simple dump-in play and he buried it to tie the score 2-2 at 8:42 of the 3rd period.
Then it just got tense, and the Sabres answered. On an offensive zone face-off win following a Vancouver icing, an almost identical situation that led to Thompson’s goal in the 1st period, JJ Peterka ripped home a one-timer from the slot to give Buffalo the lead for good at 13:33.
The Sabres survived a late Vancouver flurry with the extra attacker on.
There’s simply no reason the Canucks could or should lose this game. But they did.