Sabres rout Hurricanes (again)

On Friday, the Sabres demolished the Canes 7-1. They got goals from six different players, and they played a sound game all the way around.

Like the last visit to HSBC, the Sabres got off to a roaring start and had the game well in hand by the second intermission. Like the last one, Miller gave up a meaningless goal late to spoil the shutout bid.

The Sabres got goals from Daniel Paille, Adam Mair, Derek Roy (shorthanded), Paul Gustad, Patrick Kaleta, Roy again and Ales Kotalik (power play).

The Hurricanes could only muster one goal, a shorthanded marker by Scott Walker.

The FSN South crew kept talking about how Lindy Ruff held his team on the ice after practice yesterday and "held court" with them for some period of time between 13 minutes and 17 minutes. Whatever he said to them worked.

The Sabres came to play, and they came out of the gates hard and fast. The first goal came at 4:44 of the first, and the second at 5:06. The game was already over.

In addition to the embarrassing loss, both the Capitals and the Panthers won their games, trimming Carolina's SE lead to five points.

There were a ton of bad things about tonight, but there were actually a few good things. Carolina took about a million penalties, but the PK units did a spectacular job of killing all but one of the power plays that Buffalo enjoyed.

As the game neared the end, Carolina lost its composure and took a bunch of undisciplined penalties. By the end of it all, Carolina had 20 penalties to Buffalo's 13. Where it really mattered was that the Hurricanes were shorthanded for 18:44. Buffalo, on the other hand, was shorthanded for 6:33. In the first two periods, the penalties were even, but Carolina let frustration get the better of them and there was a constant parade to the box.

Carolina ruined the shutout, which is (sort of) a bright side.
They scored a shorthanded goal, which is (sort of) a bright side.

Most importantly, Carolina won't be going back to Buffalo until next season. In two games there this year, Carolina has played very poorly and have been outscored 15-2.

Carolina will now lick their wounds and return to Raleigh, where they will meet the Senators on Sunday.

The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Ryan Miller, BUF --- 27 saves
SECOND STAR Adam Mair, BUF --- GWG, 2 assists
FIRST STAR Derek Roy, BUF --- 2 goals, 1 assist

Special mention to Scott Walker, who scored Carolina's only goal on a shortie. He also amassed 23 penalty minutes.

Somehow, Glen Wesley of the Canes ended up with a +1 rating.

Somehow, Ales Kotalik, Max Afinogenov and Jochen Hecht of the Sabres all ended up with a -1 rating.

Eric Staal, Sergei Samsonov, Matt Cullen and Joe Corvo all had their five game points streak stopped. The Hurricanes had their five game win streak snapped.