Sabres Fall to Bruins in Tightly Conested Contest

The talk of the city of Buffalo heading into Wednesday night's game against the Boston Bruins centered around what happened to Sabres' goalie Ryan Miller the last time these two teams got together.

For those of you who are unaware of the situation, a little background may be necessary. 11 days ago in a game played in Boston, Bruins forward Milan Lucic hit Ryan Miller when Miller went came out of the net to play the puck. Some say he could have avoided Miller, while others say he had no choice but to run into him. Regardless, Miller is out indefinitely with a concussion and the Sabres have not forgotten.

Buffalo was heavily criticized after that game 11 days ago because of their lack of responsiveness to the situation. Wednesday night, Lucic knew someone was going to challenge him and that they did.

Not long after the opening puck drop, Sabres forward Paul Gaustad dropped the gloves with Lucic. Lucic, clearly the better fighter dominated the fight but the response was expected and necessary by the Sabres.

After that, Buffalo put the first two goals on the board as Christian Ehrhoff scored on a slap shot from the blue line and Thomas Vanek continued his great play by scoring his 12th goal of the season.

They took that lead into the first intermission only to have Tyler Seguin cut in half early in the second half.

With the recent injury to Tyler Myers, the Sabres called up T.J. Brennan from Rochester. It was only fitting that he scored in front of the home crowd to make it 3-1. Brad Marchand did not let that 3-1 lead last long as he netted his 7th of the season to get Boston to within one goal heading into the third.

In the third, a questionable penalty call on Buffalo's Derek Roy led to the game tying power play goal by Zdeno Chara. That ended up being the last goal of regulation.

In overtime, both teams had numerous chances to end the game and secure 2 points but neither could get it past goalies' Jhonas Enroth and Tim Thomas.

The game was decided in a shootout where it was scoreless until the fifth round when after Drew Stafford missed. Benoit Pouliot beat Enroth with a top shelf wrist shot to finish off the Sabres.

The Sabres picked up a point in the game giving them a total of 25 on the year, three behind Boston. They next play in Columbus, Friday against the Blue Jackets.