Flyers blank lowly Sabres 3-0

Martin Biron made the Buffalo Sabres pay for plenty of missed opportunities.

Biron made 40 saves for his first shutout of the season and 24th overall in the Philadelphia Flyers’ 3-0 victory over the Sabres on Friday night.

Buffalo misfired on a handful of open nets, hit three posts, and couldn’t muster any luck against a Philadelphia team that won its third straight.

Biron actually looked rather good on his own, making several spectacular saves against his former team to help the Flyers improve to 8-6-4 with their fourth win in five games. He stopped Thomas Vanek with a nifty right pad save on a second-period breakaway, and robbed Jaroslav Spacek on a point-blank slap shot with the Flyers down two men in the first.

Biron also made six big stops over a combined two minutes of a pair of Buffalo two-man advantages in the opening two periods.

“We played a pretty basic game, and Marty did everything that we needed him to do,” said Philadelphia center Jeff Carter, who scored twice. Scott Hartnell also scored for the Flyers, 3-0-1 in their last four road games.

The Flyers won despite playing without former Sabres co-captain Daniel Briere. He missed his fourth consecutive game because of a groin injury.

After starting the season 6-0-2, the slumping Sabres (9-7-3) dropped their fourth straight to fall to 1-5-1 in their last seven games.

Buffalo’s Ryan Miller finished with 22 saves two nights after being pulled early in the third period in Boston after surrendering seven goals. He dropped to 5-1-1 in his last seven starts against the Flyers.

In an effort to shake up its slump, Buffalo sat defenseman Henrik Tallinder and forward Maxim Afinogenov. Right wing Mark Mancari, the second-leading scorer in the AHL, was recalled from Portland and inserted into the lineup, while defenseman Nathan Paetsch played for just the fifth time. The change was to no avail.

“When you haven’t been going good you don’t get the breaks,” Ruff said. “We haven’t been going good.”

Hartnell opened the scoring with just 58 seconds left in the first period. Coming out of the penalty box after serving a minor penalty, Hartnell accepted a long pass from Simon Gagne to go in alone on Miller. Hartnell made a quick move before lifting a backhander over Miller’s left shoulder for his fifth of the season.

Two minutes later, Jason Pominville hit the side of a gaping net before Carter made Buffalo pay, beating Miller with a bouncing-puck wrist shot from the top of the right circle that made it 2-0 with 11:41 to go.
Carter capped the scoring with his team-leading 13th into an empty net with a minute left.

Bruins top Panthers 4-2

Marc Savard and Patrice Bergeron had a goal and an assist each to lead Boston to its eighth victory in nine games, a 4-2 decision over Florida on Friday night that moved the Bruins into a tie for the Eastern Conference lead.

“One of the things they preached at the start of the season was positioning,” defenseman Aaron Ward said. “Teams that position themselves well by Thanksgiving have a tendency to really put themselves in good position at the end of the year.”

The Bruins, 11-1-1 in their last 13 games and the winners of seven straight at home, matched the idle New York Rangers with 30 points in the conference race. “I don’t think we feel too good about ourselves,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “Our team has not had to face this kind of thing for a long time … being in first place.”

Phil Kessel and David Krejci added goals for Boston. David Booth and Ville Peltonen scored for Florida, which ended a stretch of eight games in the last 10 on the road. The Panthers play the next three games at home.“It’s been a tough few weeks,” Florida coach Peter DeBoer said. “A team like (Boston), they’ll sting you. You make one mistake and it’s in the net.”

Savard, who has two goals and nine assists during a five-game points streak and three goals and 15 assists in the last 17 games, sent Kessel in on a breakaway to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead just 2:46 of the first period. Kessel has goals in each of the last three games and three goals and three assists during a five-game points streak. He is the first Bruin to 10 goals this season.

After Booth tied it, Bergeron tipped Matt Hunwick’s shot past Tomas Vokoun for his first goal in eight games. David Krejci and Savard scored in the second period as the Bruins peppered Vokoun with 35 shots in the first 40 minutes.

Bruins goalie Tim Thomas made 30 saves to improve to 5-0-1 in his last six games. Ville Peltonen scored his first goal of the season late to make it closer.

Booth’s goal came on a breakaway and was first ruled no goal, even though it appeared to be in. A review confirmed Booth’s sixth goal in the last nine games.

The Bruins, who haven’t lost in regulation this month, are one game from matching their longest home winning streak since Nov. 2-29, 2002. They will face the New York Islanders on Nov. 29 after two straight road games.

Bruins left wing Marco Sturm missed his second straight game because of an upper-body injury and is day-to-day. Boston defenseman Matt Lashoff, recalled earlier in the week, was a healthy scratch. …

Mike Komisarek out 1 month with shoulder injury

Montreal Canadiens defenseman Mike Komisarek will be on the shelf for another month with a shoulder injury suffered after a fight with Boston's Milan Lucic last week.

Komisarek has already missed the Habs last 4 games because of a shoulder dislocation. It was originally thought that Komisarek would only miss one week. The Canadiens receive the Bruins and Milan Lucic tomorrow night.

Lucic will become enemy #1 in Montreal and it's expected he will get booed everytime he will touch the puck.

Expect Bob Gainey to make a move very soon, whether it is calling up a rearguard from Hamilton or acquiring a defenseman via transaction.

Sabres expected lines for tonight

Forwards:
Thomas Vanek - Jochen Hecht - Jason Pominville
Clarke MacArthur - Derek Roy - Drew Stafford
Daniel Paille - Paul Gaustad - Mark Mancari
Patrick Kaleta - Adam Mair - Andrew Peters

Defensemen:
Jaroslav Spacek - Craig Rivet
Tony Lydman - Andrej Sekera
Nathan Paetsch - Teppo Numminen

Goalies:
Ryan Miller
Patrick Lalime

Ryan Miller is expected to get the start for tonight's game against the Flyers.
Henrik Tallinder and Maxim Afinogenov will be healthy scratches.

The Sabres have recalled right winger Mark Mancari from Portland, where he was second in the AHL in scoring with 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists) in 14 games.

Bruins expected lines for tonight

Forwards:
Milan Lucic - Marc Savard - Phil Kessel
P.J. Axelsson - Patrice Bergeron - Michael Ryder
Blake Wheeler - David Krejci - Chuck Kobasew
Shawn Thornton - Stephane Yelle - Petteri Nokelainen

Defensemen:
Zdeno Chara - Aaron Ward
Matt Hunwick - Dennis Wideman
Mark Stuart - Shane Hnidy

Goalies:
Tim Thomas
Manny Fernandez

Thomas is expected to get the start tonight.

Matt Lashoff who was called up from Providence is not expected to play.

Canadiens wins 3-2 in shootout

Alex Tanguay scored on Montreal’s fourth shootout attempt to give the Canadiens a 3-2 victory over the Senators on Thursday night. Andrei Markov and Jason Spezza also scored on the shootout.

The Senators’ losing streak reached six games (0-4-2) in which they also managed to score 7 goals.

Dany Heatley gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead 4:21 in with his team-leading 11th goal. Saku Koivu pulled the Canadiens even at 1 with his seventh goal on a power play 13:33 into the first. The Canadiens had 8 shots in a very boring first period; the Senators only managed 4 shots.

There was no goal in the 2nd period, the Habs shot only 3 times and the Sens 7 times, but Steve Begin and Cody Bass dropped the gloves to give the fans something to cheer about.

Nick Foligno put Ottawa ahead 2-1 with his second goal on a power play 4:58 into the third on a rebound where Carey Price didn't know where the puck was. Markov drew Montreal even at 2 with 4:24 remaining in the third. The Russian defenseman drove a slap shot past Auld from the right faceoff circle for his second goal of the season.

Montreal’s Guillaume Latendresse drew a high-sticking penalty after he got his stick up on defenseman Anton Volchenkov in the Senators’ zone with 15.2 remaining in regulation; however, the Senators failed to take advantage of this penalty in overtime.

The Canadiens managed only 21 shots on Alex Auld, who made 19 saves. As for the Senators they shot 25 times on Price, who stopped 23 shots.

The Canadiens will host the Boston Bruins on Saturday after the raise Patrick ROy's number to the rafters. As for the Senators they will receive the NYRangers also on Saturday.

Gainey still after Sundin

As per Sportsnet:

A sputtering power play seems to have forced the Montreal Canadiens to rekindle their interest in Mats Sundin.

Canadiens GM Bob Gainey met Wednesday with Sundin in California, where the 37-year-old unrestricted free agent has been working out as he decides whether to resume his NHL career.

The meeting is an about-face for Gainey, who had said he no longer had interest in Sundin after the team acquired forwards Robert Lang and Alex Tanguay. In late June, Gainey dealt for the exclusive negotiating rights with Sundin prior to the July 1 free agent deadline, but could not come to an agreement.

The Canadiens, though, have had some offensive struggles of late, including a power play that is ranked 26th in the league at 14.8 per cent entering Thursday’s game against the Ottawa Senators.

Though Sundin hasn’t publicly said he will return to the league, sources tell Hockeycentral if all goes according to plan, he and his agent J.P. Barry will put together a short list of teams in which Sundin has interest, one of which Gainey hopes to be.

My take: Gainey being a very clever GM, I'm sure he will find a way to move players and fit Sundin under the cap he deems Sundin would bolster his anemic attack. The Habs need to perform well this season for their centennial.

Projected lines Habs vs Senators

Forwards:
Latendresse - Koivu - Tanguay
Higgins - Plekanec - Kovalev
A. Kostitsyn - Lang - Kostopolos
S. Kostitsyn - Begin - Laraque

Defence:
Markov - Gorges
Hamrlik - O'Byrne
Bouillon - Brisebois

Goaltender:
Price

Healty scratches: Lapierre, Dandenault

Forwards:
Heatley - Spezza - Alfredsson
Kelly - Vermette - Winchester
Ruutu - McAmmond - Donovan
Foligno - Bass - Zubov

Defence:
Phillips - Volchenkov
Picard - Kuba
Smith - Bell

Goaltender:
Auld

Healthy Scratches : Schubert, Richardson

Habs need to find a power play specialist

I guess a lot of fans in Montreal now miss Mark Streit after his departure via free agency to Long Island.

Montreal had last year’s number one power play in the NHL, but they are now sitting 26th with a poor 14.6% success rate, while the Islanders power play has improved slightly from 29th to 25th overall. Streit has 12 points (he would be the Habs' 5th scorer) in 18 games, with only six of them coming with the man advantage.

Many thought Streit would struggle as a full-time defenseman, but he’s only minus-2 on a very ordinary islanders team. Streit has logged the ninth most ice time in the NHL with an average of 25:53 each game, including over six minutes on the power play.

Meanwhile, Ryan O'Byrne and Patrice Brisebois, who play with Roman Hamrlik, Streit's former partner on defense, have a combined 1 goal and 4 assists in 27 games this season...

Streit was the shooter on a very effective 1st unit last season along with Markov, Kovalev, Plekanec and A. Kostitsyn. This season, newly-acquired Alex Tanguay is also manning the point with Andrei Markov.

The latter was asked to be the shooter without great success, Markov being more of a passer than a shooter, as shown by his 1 goal and 13 assists in 17 games this season. As a result, the Habs have became very predictable on the power play, and the defensive team is putting much more pressure on Koivu (0 goal on the PP) and Kovalev (1 goal on the PP).

Guy Carbonneau has yet to adjust his strategy and the problem is more and more evident recently as the Canadiens have lost 4 of their last 5 games.

Will Carbonneau change his strategy or will Bob Gainey pull the trigger and acquire a power play specialist with a hard shot (Philippe Boucher anyone)?

Offensive showdown in Boston

The Boston Bruins were able to overcome at 4-2 deficit in the middle of the 1st period to get a 7-4 win against their Norteast rivals, the Buffalo Sabres. The Bruins scored five unanswered goals to give them their sixth straight win at home and their seventh win in the last eight games. Boston’s last regulation loss was Oct. 30 in Calgary.

Manny Fernandez struggled early, allowing 4 goals on 14 shots in the 1st period, before closing the door for the rest of the game. Ryan Miller had a tough night and was pulled at the beginning of the 3rd period after he surrendered Boston's 7th goal to Phil Kessel.

In the loss, Vanek scored 2 goals and 1 assist. He is now the league leader with 15 goals on the season. Jason Pominville scored in his 4th consecutive game, notching a goal and 2 assists. Teppo Numminen and Daniel Paille finished the night with a -3.

Zdeno Chara and Chuck Kobasew each scored twice in the win. Marc Savard figured in four goals (1 g, 3 a), giving him 600 points in his illustrious career.

The Bruins are now 2-0-1 against the Sabres this season. They will next face each other on November 26 in Buffalo.

The Bruins' next game is in Florida Friday, as for the Sabres they will host the Philadelphia Flyers also on Friday.

Bruins forward Marco Sturm missed the game with an upper body injury