On Saturday night, Ryan Miller put up 41 saves and guided the Buffalo Sabres to a 3-2 win over the New York Islanders. On Sunday afternoon, Miller put up another tremendous 36 save effort against the Boston Bruins, but his team was unable to duplicate the result.
The 3-1 victory catapulted the Bruins to an 8-1-1 start, the greatest in franchise history. Boston's Saturday game with the Tampa Bay Lightning was postponed due to the blizzard, but the extra rest gave the team an extra jump against the travel weary Sabres.
Boston's Brad Marchand opened the scoring at the 7:10 mark of the second. However, Buffalo's Tyler Ennis tied the game at the 18:01 mark. The Bruins retook the lead in the third when Patrice Bergeron scored a powerplay goal at 7:52. Milan Lucic sealed the win with 49 seconds left to play.
Despite being outplayed and losing, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff was happy with his team's performance. "The top half of our line up didn't have [great legs]," said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. "I think they caught a little bit of a break not playing last night, which gave them a little bit of an upper hand, but I thought we matched or almost exceeded their intensity."
He complimented his goalie as well. "[Miller] played real good," Ruff said. "There were some areas defending I liked. There were some big giveaways that our defense had that Ryan made a couple great saves on."
Boston's Anton Khudobin was the better keeper and made 25 saves in the game. "It was great. I got a little rest in the first and second period. I didn't do much. I just had to stop a couple [shots] to keep it scoreless," Khudobin said. "The guys played awesome in front of me."
The Bruins play again on Tuesday night when they host the NY Rangers; the Sabres visit the Ottawa Senators on the same day.
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