Miller blanks Islanders to end win streak

November 5, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Last night, another All New York Battle took place at HSBC Arena between the Sabres and Islanders in Western NY. In already the third of four regular season meetings, Buffalo avenged a 5-0 road defeat with a 3-0 shutout, backed by 24 saves from Ryan Miller, who posted his second SHO of the season (14th career) to get the Sabres back on the winning track.

“We played a real sound game coming off that loss,” Miler said referring to their Saturday defeat at The Coliseum which featured Jeff Tambellini’s first career hat trick. “We did a very sound job pushing the puck up the ice, and we didn’t give up anything that was too dangerous. We want to be a team that’s in control.”

With the Yankees wrapping up their 27th world championship last night dethroning the Phillies, we missed most of it. Here are game highlights via NHL Video off You Tube:

The Sabres victimized the Islanders for two power play goals off the sticks of Derek Roy (1st of season) and Thomas Vanek (5th). Roy got the scoring started when just six seconds into a Kyle Okposo hooking infraction, the playmaking pivot wired a shot from the top of the left circle past former teammate Martin Biron 8:27 in. Biron had shut Buffalo out making 38 stops four days prior but it wasn’t repeating itself this time.

The Isles did generate a couple of chances to tie but Miller said no, including a nice save on Okposo from the slot off a broken play. On another power play, Buffalo nearly went up two but Biron kept his team afloat with some nice work, thwarting Roy on the doorstep as Brendan Witt shoved Clarke MacArthur into the net which went unpenalized.

With Biron having stopped 13 of 14 in the first, the Isles nearly took advantage again coming close to tying but Miller slammed the door on rookie John Tavares. After a Sabre penalty expired on Andrej Sekera, the defenseman came out of the box and broke in on Biron but he denied him and then made another strong save minutes later. With his team still trailing and Witt in the box for boarding, he nearly kept it a one-goal deficit with some more solid goaltending but couldn’t keep Vanek from putting away the rebound off a nice setup from Drew Stafford and Tim Connolly, making it 2-zip Sabres at 17:13 of the second.

“It was a real great effort,” said Vanek, who snapped a five-game goal drought. “We adjusted good from the other night, and overall played well and deserved to win.”

Down two, Biron continued to play well making a few more nice stops, including smothering a Vanek backhand off a mini-break. But on a night he turned aside 36 of 39, the problem was his former ‘mate Miller, who took over the No.1 job a few years ago. That along with a relentless Buffalo attack (39-24 SOG edge) helped end the Islander win streak at four.

“I think they had to find their moments,” Miller added. “They couldn’t get a consistent attack going, which I think is why we ended up winning that game.”

The final nail in the coffin came in odd fashion when Paul Gaustad was rewarded with his third following a lengthy review. Initially, the refs blew it dead but both Gaustad and teammates contested that he’d stuffed the puck in before the whistle blew. This also happened last month in a Ranger home win over LA, which rewarded Vinny Prospal with a crucial goal. This time off a faceoff win, Gaustad got to the front of the net and took a few whacks at a Tyler Myers rebound as Biron tried to cover it.

Via the MSG Buffalo feed, replays seemed to indicate that he was successful jamming it in just prior to the whistle. So, after taking a few minutes to look over it, they rewarded Gaustad with a goal making it 3-0 with 3:41 remaining. Though Islander captain Doug Weight didn’t seem to agree. Perhaps NHL brass needs to go over these type of situations, making an adjustment with the rules that clarifies when goals count so there’s not so much confusion as we’ve seen with Weight and Terry Murray when it went against them. For another day.

It was highly predictable that the Sabres would win the rematch. Especially off such a poor outing in which they won no battles. Plus Lindy Ruff’s club was well rested while Scott Gordon’s had played another game in between, getting the better of Edmonton, who hosts the Rangers later tonight.

“They did a lot of things right, but you combine that with our lack of efficiency in the face-off dot, our lack of urgency at times, poor decisions, and not skating when we had the opportunity, it was a bad combination,” Gordon duly noted. “They are one of the better teams in the league, and they have the ability to do what they did.”

Notes: Not coincidentally, Tavares’ four-game point streak came to a halt. In nearly 16 minutes, JT91 finished with two shots while struggling in the faceoff circle losing seven of nine. However it was a team-wide epidemic as the Isles somehow managed to lose a preposterous 83 percent of draws with Buffalo holding a 39-8 margin (Roy 14-zip, Gaustad 13-4). Frans Nielsen lost 11 of 14 and Josh Bailey went 1 and 8. Awfully hard to win when you never have the puck. Something we’re certain Gordon had his centers practice in preparation for the Devils at The Rock tomorrow night.

BONY 3 Stars:

3rd Star-Ryan Miller, (24 saves-2nd SHO and 14th career)

2nd Star-Thomas Vanek, (PPG/assist, 4 SOG in 17 shifts-11:47)

1st Star-Derek Roy,  (PPG-1st of season, 4 SOG, perfect 14 of 14 draws in 18 shifts-12:42)