Stars Beat Sabres
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Dallas Stars are learning how to win games outside of their comfort zone.
Three Dallas players scored, and goalie Antti Niemi made 24 saves to lead the Stars to a 3-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night.
It was a methodical, defensive road victory for the Stars (15-4-0), who are known for their fast-paced, high-scoring approach.
“It was a pretty boring game, really,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said. “We need to be comfortable in those situations where we can’t get frustrated that there’s nothing going on. Be happy with a one-goal lead and be satisfied with a boring two points we get in the end.”
Center Jason Spezza, right winger Valeri Nichushkin and center Tyler Seguin scored for the Stars.
Center Ryan O’Reilly scored for the Sabres, who staged a late comeback only to see the potential tying goal overturned on a replay challenge.
“I thought we played them tooth and nail the whole way,” Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said.
Sabres center Sam Reinhart appeared to tie the game at 2-2 with 6:07 remaining by beating Niemi with a wrist shot from the left circle. The Stars immediately challenged the goal, and officials ruled that center Tyler Ennis — who screened Niemi on the disallowed goal — entered the zone before the puck and was offside.
“It’s mentally tough,” Niemi said. “It’s new. You feel kind of lucky after that, even if it was
a fair call. But it felt like a second chance. It’s got to be really tough for them because they get pumped they are tying the game.”
Said Reinhart: “It’s tough. I mean, clearly it was offsides.”
The performance may not have been up to Dallas’ usual offensive standards, but coach Lindy Ruff was pleased with his team’s ability to finish a road game in a more methodical fashion.
“Last year, we hurt ourselves dearly with a one-goal lead and trying to make something out of nothing and all of a sudden we’re giving up the odd-numbered rushes that hurt us,” Ruff said. “That’s the one thing that we’ve learned is maybe 1-0 is good enough. Win 1-0 and not offer up the opposition a chance to get back in the game.”
Goalie Linus Ullmark made 26 saves for the Sabres (8-9-1).
It took less than a minute for the Stars to open the scoring on a strong effort from Nichushkin in the Buffalo zone. After skating hard down the left flank, Nichushkin made a centering pass that found its way to left winger Antoine Roussel in front of the Buffalo net. Roussel found Nichushkin with a return pass as he cut inside, and the right winger had an open net for his backhand attempt 51 seconds in.
“He’s really been working hard,” Ruff said of Nichushkin. “I’m happy for him because it was a struggle the first two to three weeks, and he was a pretty frustrated young man. Now he’s got a smile on his face, and he’s been working real hard.”
Spezza increased Dallas’ lead to 2-0 at 7:35 of the third period with a deflection in front of the Sabres’ net. After Spezza slid by Sabres defenseman Tim Schaller with a terrific move near the blue line, center Mattias Janmark took the puck and connected with defenseman Alex Goligoski. Spezza then redirected Goligoski’s shot from the slot.
“I thought one of his best games,” Ruff said of Spezza. “I thought he skated well.”
The Sabres mounted their third-period comeback thanks to two careless penalties from the Stars.
With Jamie Benn in the penalty box for cross-checking, O’Reilly got the Sabres on the board with a power-play goal with 6:57 remaining. The center curled inside the right circle and fired a hard wrist shot to the blocker side to make it 2-1.
Gologoski took a delay-of-game penalty with 6:44 remaining, which prompted Reinhart’s disallowed goal.
Seguin scored an empty-net goal with 1:27 remaining to thwart Buffalo’s comeback attempt.
