GAME THREAD: NHL: BUFFALO (9-11) at MONTREAL (12-10)

NHL: BUFFALO at MONTREAL

<div class="pre">NHL BUFFALO 2
MONTREAL 0 15:08 LEFT, 3RD PRD</div>

 

NHL: BUFFALO at MONTREAL

<div class="pre">NHL BUFFALO 2
MONTREAL 0 11:13 LEFT, 3RD PRD</div>

 

NHL: BUFFALO at MONTREAL

<div class="pre">NHL BUFFALO 2
MONTREAL 0 6:12 LEFT, 3RD PRD</div>

 

NHL: BUFFALO at MONTREAL

<div class="pre">NHL BUFFALO 2
MONTREAL 0 4:10 LEFT, 3RD PRD</div>

 

NHL: BUFFALO at MONTREAL

<div class="pre">NHL BUFFALO 3
MONTREAL 0
3RD PRD: BUF - (EN) JOCHEN HECHT 6 (JAROSLAV SPACEK) 19:33</div>

 

NHL: BUFFALO at MONTREAL

<div class="pre">NHL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL
--- --- --- -----
BUFFALO 0 2 1 3
MONTREAL 0 0 0 0 FINAL

GOAL SCORING:

1ST PRD: NONE
2ND PRD: BUF - (PP) JAROSLAV SPACEK 5 (ALES KOTALIK, BRIAN CAMPBELL)
9:38
BUF - THOMAS VANEK 6 (MICHAEL RYAN, DEREK ROY) 13:54
3RD PRD: BUF - (EN) JOCHEN HECHT 6 (JAROSLAV SPACEK) 19:33

POWER-PLAY CONVERSIONS: BUF - 1 OF 4, MON - 0 OF 3.

SHOTS ON GOAL: 1ST 2ND 3RD TOTAL
--- --- --- -----
BUF 10 14 11 35
MON 9 7 8 24

GOALIES: BUF - JOCELYN THIBAULT
MON - CRISTOBAL HUET

OFFICIALS: REF - DAVE JACKSON, STEPHANE AUGER
LIN - PIERRE CHAMPOUX, STEVE BARTON

ATT: 21,273</div>

 

NHL: BUFFALO at MONTREAL

<div class="pre">------------------------------------
Buffalo 0 2 1 --3
Montreal 0 0 0 --0
------------------------------------

FIRST PERIOD -- Scoring: None. Penalties: N Pratt, Buf (hooking), 12:52; T
Kostopoulos, Mon (hooking), 15:28.

SECOND PERIOD -- Scoring: 1, Buffalo, Jaroslav Spacek 5 (power play)
(Ales Kotalik, Brian Campbell), 9:38. 2, Buffalo, Thomas Vanek 6
(Michael Ryan, Derek Roy), 13:54. Penalties: T Plekanec, Mon
(hooking), 0:40; T Kostopoulos, Mon (hooking), 9:29.

THIRD PERIOD -- Scoring: 3, Buffalo, Jochen Hecht 6 (empty net)
(Jaroslav Spacek), 19:33. Penalties: J Gorges, Mon (hooking), 10:29;
T Vanek, Buf (boarding), 12:58; J Hecht, Buf (cross checking), 14:57.

Shots on goal:
---------------------------------------
Buffalo 10 14 11 --35
Montreal 9 7 8 --24
---------------------------------------

Power-play Conversions: Buffalo - 1 of 4, Montreal - 0 of 3. Goalies :
Buffalo, Jocelyn Thibault (24 shots, 24 saves; record: 2-1-0).
Montreal, Cristobal Huet (34 shots, 32 saves; record: 7-6-2). A:
21,273. Referees: Dave Jackson, Stephane Auger. Linesmen: Pierre
Champoux, Steve Barton.</div>

 

MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Jocelyn Thibault apparently loves returninghome.


Thibault recorded his first shutout of the season by stoppingall 24 shots he faced while Jaroslav Spacek and Thomas Vanekscored goals to lift the Buffalo Sabres to a 3-0 victory overthe Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.


A Montreal native, Thibault recorded his 38th career shutout bystopping nine shots in the first period, seven in the second andeight in the third period.


A first-round pick - 10th overall - in the 1993 draft, Thibaultnow has three shutout victories against the Canadiens in hiscareer.


Buffalo now has a season-best four-game winning streak, withthree of the wins coming at the expense of Montreal.

Spacek opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 9:38 of thesecond period.


Defenseman Brian Campbell fired a shot from along the blue line,catching a piece of Ales Kotalik in front of the net. The puckhit the right post and deflected back to Spacek, who one-timedthe puck into the open net.


Vanek scored his sixth goal of the season to give the Sabres a2-0 advantage just over four minutes later.


Jochen Hecht added an empty-netter with 27 seconds left to icethe game.


Cristobal Huet made 32 saves for Montreal.

 

NHL: BUFFALO at MONTREAL

<div class="pre">** CONFIRMED **
NHL
BUFFALO 3
MONTREAL 0</div>

 

NHL: BUFFALO at MONTREAL

<div class="pre">------------------------------------
Buffalo 0 2 1 --3
Montreal 0 0 0 --0
------------------------------------

FIRST PERIOD -- Scoring: None. Penalties: N Pratt, Buf (hooking), 12:52; T
Kostopoulos, Mon (hooking), 15:28.

SECOND PERIOD -- Scoring: 1, Buffalo, Jaroslav Spacek 5 (power play)
(Ales Kotalik, Brian Campbell), 9:38. 2, Buffalo, Thomas Vanek 6
(Michael Ryan, Derek Roy), 13:54. Penalties: T Plekanec, Mon
(hooking), 0:40; T Kostopoulos, Mon (hooking), 9:29.

THIRD PERIOD -- Scoring: 3, Buffalo, Jochen Hecht 6 (empty net)
(Jaroslav Spacek), 19:33. Penalties: J Gorges, Mon (hooking), 10:29;
T Vanek, Buf (boarding), 12:58; J Hecht, Buf (cross checking), 14:57.

Shots on goal:
---------------------------------------
Buffalo 10 14 11 --35
Montreal 9 7 8 --24
---------------------------------------

Power-play Conversions: Buffalo - 1 of 4, Montreal - 0 of 3. Goalies :
Buffalo, Jocelyn Thibault (24 shots, 24 saves; record: 2-1-0).
Montreal, Cristobal Huet (34 shots, 32 saves; record: 7-6-2). A:
21,273. Referees: Dave Jackson, Stephane Auger. Linesmen: Pierre
Champoux, Steve Barton.</div>

 

NHL: BUFFALO at MONTREAL

<div class="pre">-----------------------------------------
BUFFALO 0 2 1 --3
MONTREAL 0 0 0 --0
-----------------------------------------

FIRST PERIOD -- Scoring: None. Penalties: N Pratt, Buf (hooking), 12:52; T
Kostopoulos, Mon (hooking), 15:28.

SECOND PERIOD -- Scoring: 1, Buffalo, Jaroslav Spacek 5 (power play)
(Ales Kotalik, Brian Campbell), 9:38. 2, Buffalo, Thomas Vanek 6
(Michael Ryan, Derek Roy), 13:54. Penalties: T Plekanec, Mon
(hooking), 0:40; T Kostopoulos, Mon (hooking), 9:29.

THIRD PERIOD -- Scoring: 3, Buffalo, Jochen Hecht 6 (empty net)
(Jaroslav Spacek), 19:33. Penalties: J Gorges, Mon (hooking), 10:29;
T Vanek, Buf (boarding), 12:58; J Hecht, Buf (cross checking), 14:57.

Shots on goal:
----------------------------------------
BUFFALO 10 14 11 --35
MONTREAL 9 7 8 --24
----------------------------------------

Power-play Conversions: BUF - 1 of 4, MON - 0 of 3. Goalies : Buffalo,
Jocelyn Thibault (24 shots, 24 saves; record: 2-1-0). Montreal,
Cristobal Huet (34 shots, 32 saves; record: 7-6-2). A: 21,273.
Referees: Dave Jackson, Stephane Auger. Linesmen: Pierre Champoux,
Steve Barton.

INDIVIDUAL PLAYER STATISTICS

BUFFALO MONTREAL
G A +/- Shots G A +/- Shots
H Tallinder 0 0 even 2 S Koivu 0 0 -2 1
A Kotalik 0 1 even 3 T Plekanec 0 0 -1 1
T Connolly 0 0 even 2 B Smolinski 0 0 even 0
D Paille 0 0 even 3 C Higgins 0 0 -1 1
T Vanek 1 0 +1 4 S Begin 0 0 even 1
P Gaustad 0 0 even 1 M Dandenault 0 0 -1 2
J Pominville 0 0 +1 0 J Gorges 0 0 even 0
M Ryan 0 1 +1 1 A Kovalev 0 0 -1 3
N Paetsch 0 0 even 2 K Chipchura 0 0 even 1
N Pratt 0 0 even 0 M Streit 0 0 -1 0
C MacArthur 0 0 +1 2 R Hamrlik 0 0 -1 3
T Lydman 0 0 even 1 A Kostitsyn 0 0 even 4
B Campbell 0 1 +2 2 T Kostopoulos 0 0 even 1
J Hecht 1 0 +1 7 P Brisebois 0 0 even 1
J Spacek 1 1 +2 4 M Ryder 0 0 even 0
M Afinogenov 0 0 even 0 A Markov 0 0 -1 1
A Peters 0 0 even 0 M Komisarek 0 0 -1 2
D Roy 0 1 +1 1 G Latendresse 0 0 -1 2
A Mair ANKLE INJURY F Bouillon HEALTHY
D Stafford SHOULDER M Grabovski HEALTHY</div>

 

MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Jocelyn Thibault apparently lovesreturning home.


Thibault recorded his first shutout of the season by stoppingall 24 shots he faced while Jaroslav Spacek and Thomas Vanekscored goals to lift the Buffalo Sabres to a 3-0 victory overthe Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.


A Montreal native, Thibault recorded his 38th career shutout bystopping nine shots in the first period, seven in the second andeight in the third period.


A first-round pick - 10th overall - in the 1993 draft, Thibaultnow has three shutout victories against the Canadiens in hiscareer.


"It's always special when I get to play against Montreal,especially here," Thibault said. "I think the guys knew thiswas something special for me coming back home. They gave agreat effort in front of me."


Buffalo now has a season-best four-game winning streak, withthree of the wins coming at the expense of Montreal.

Spacek opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 9:38 of thesecond period.


Defenseman Brian Campbell fired a shot from along the blue line,catching a piece of Ales Kotalik in front of the net. The puckhit the right post and deflected back to Spacek, who one-timedthe puck into the open net.


"It never gets easy (against Montreal), they're a pretty goodteam and they've gotten off to a good start," Campbell said.

"Right now, we're playing desperate hockey and we're playing theway we need to. We weren't at the start of the year and thatcost us and put us in a hole ... and we're still trying to getout of that hole."


Vanek scored his sixth goal of the season to give the Sabres a2-0 advantage just over four minutes later.


"That was just a bad effort all around, we didn't come to play,"Christopher Higgins said. "Our decisions weren't what theyneeded to be. We weren't working the puck deep, there were alot of turnovers, and we weren't backchecking.


"It was just a poor effort all around. We played pretty goodhockey in the third, but the first two (periods) were justembarrassing."


Montreal Guy Carbonneau was visibly upset after his team'sperformance on Saturday.


"There are several players that have become too comfortable,"Carbonneau said. "Either I have to change the way I speak to myplayers or I have to decide to change some players. "We don'thave any 50- or 60-goal scorers or 100-point guys. We need guysthat can scratch out goals. We need to work, tonight we simplydidn't work."


Jochen Hecht added an empty-netter with 27 seconds left to icethe game.


"We can't keep going in this direction, we can't accept this,"Montreal's Mike Komisarek said. "We've worked hard to putourselves in the position we're in - good standing in ourconference - but it's going to be very hard to stay there. Wehaven't accomplished anything yet."


Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff feels his team has turned a corner.

"We've played good hockey (this season) and didn't getrewarded," Ruff said. "From that point, we needed to play goodhockey against some good teams and I felt that we've played someof our best against Ottawa and Montreal."


Cristobal Huet made 32 saves for Montreal.