October 9th, 2014
Tonight the Arizona Coyotes take on the Buffalo Sabres (1-0-1) at home for the second and last time before heading out on a 4 game road trip that will take them down through Florida. Due to the high success of the Coyotes third line [L. Lessio (1-3), M. Domi (3-1), D. Moss (0-1)] many suspect the third line to start to get more minutes, as well rookie
M. Domi will start to see some PP time centring the second 5 on 4 and 5 on 3 PP units along side line mate
L. Lessio and
S. Doan (C). The Buffalo Sabres will be without young RW
Alex Chiasson in tonights game as he is out with shoulder soreness.
The Buffalo Sabres projected lines are as such:
T. Vanek (8.0a) H. Sedin (8.0a) R. Vrbata (7.5a)
M. Foligno (7.5a) C. Hodgson (8.0a) D. Stafford (7.5a)
J. Zucker (6.5c) T. Ennis (7.5a) Z. Girgensons (7.0c)
B. Brassart (6.5a) M. Grigorenko (7.5b) M. Nieto (7.0a)
T. Myers (8.0b) C. Ehrhoff (8.0a)
W. Mitchell (6.5a) R. Ristolainen (6.5b)
R. Wilson (6.5b) C. Ruhwedel (6.5a)
R. Miller (8.0a)
M. Hutchinson (6.0a)
The Coyotes line up as such:
R. Klinkhammer (6.5a) M. Ribeiro (7.5a) N. Yakupov (7.5a)
M. Boedker (7.5a) M. Hanzal (7.5a) S. Doan (7.0a)
L. Lessio (6.5a) M. Domi (7.0a) D. Moss (7.0a)
L. Korpikoski (6.5a) K. Chipchura (6.5a) P. Bissonnette (7.0a)
O. Ekman Larsson (8.5a) K. Yandle (8.0a)
M. Stone (7.5a) D. Rundblad (6.5a)
B. Gormley (7.5a) Z. Michalek (7.0a)
M. Smith (8.0a)
M. Visentin (6.0a)
In what could only be described as a very evenly matched game the Coyotes and Sabres played each other very well and even. Neither team really took any momentum which is lucky for the Sabres as
M. Hanzal could have for the Coyotes after ringing a puck off of the post just two minutes into the game. After the rattling of the post it is the Sabres who get on the board first off of a
J. Zucker goal at 8:14. The 1-0 lead is short lived however as young Coyote stud
O. Ekman Larsson nets one on
R. Miller at 12:28 off of the face off one timer. The rest of the period is very even between both teams but it is the Coyotes who get the break when rookie
M. Domi is located in the perfect place to get the weird bouncing puck off of the missed shot by
D. Moss and net his fourth goal of the season at 18:58. Buffalo has successful killed off two penalties this period and will be starting the second period down a man with 1:54 left in that PP. Overall the teams are evenly matched but the Coyotes are the ones going away with the 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
The second period is the tale of two halves as the Coyotes absolutely dominated the first 10:30 seconds of play forcing the Sabres to try and kill of 3 penalties, of which they only were able to kill off 1, and outshooting the Sabres 9-1 with the first second period shot coming at the 10:30 second mark! The Coyotes were able to get contribution from its second PP line with goals from
M. Domi at 6:44 his second of the game and from
S. Doan (C) at 9:54. After being dominated for the first half of the game the Sabres switched the switch and dominated the Coyotes for the next five minutes which saw them erase the 4-1 lead and bring the game to a 4-3 game with goals from
R. Ristolainen at 11:18 and
M. Grigorenko at 14:36. However at the end of the period the Coyotes were able to retake control of the game and end the period getting the last 4 of 5 shots.
The third period is an emotional one for all the Coyotes fans out there as it starts with a
B. Brassart goal just :34 into the periods start on a shot the caught
M. Smith completely off guard and looks like he never even saw the shot coming. The Sabres continue to pummel the Coyotes for the next 11 minutes and it sees them take the lead on the first PP of the game for them when
C. Hodgens gets one in at 5:40. The Coyotes never give up however and almost get one in at the 12 minute mark as
O. Ekman Larsson and
K. Yandle both put shots off the posts less then 30 seconds apart! But
R. Miller is lucky and gets away with highway robbery. The Coyotes are given a lucky break again as the hockey gods do everything they can to help out the Sabres as the Coyotes finish off the game on the PP and are unable to even get a shot on goal! They lose this one 5-4 to the Buffalo Sabres and are now 2-2-0 on the season.
Here is what Coach Wells had to say about the third period , Well the wheels just feel off, not much more to say about it. This isn't the same Buffalo team that finished 11th in the East last year. This is a playoff bound team that reworked itself really quick over the offseason. Got to give it to them they fought hard and have the resilience to come back from a 4-1 deficit.
Notes- Max Domi keeps on his very hot streak getting finishing the night with three points (2-1) and his second two goal game in his short NHL career
- Lucas Lessio is still hot just like Domi getting two assists to take his point total to 6 in just 4 games this season
- The Sabres and Coyotes both went 33% on the PP with Buffalo going 1-3 and Coyotes going 2-6
- The Sabres held the Coyotes to just 4 shots in the third period which helped them with the comeback
- The Sabres finish the last 30 minutes of the game outshooting the Coyotes 23-10