By Tim Schmitt
Greater Niagara Newspapers
BUFFALO
February 27, 2008 10:44 pm
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Talk about a roller-coaster night for Sabres goalie Ryan Miller, who ended up with his 29th victory of the season in Buffalo’s 8-4 win over the Nashville Predators on Wednesday.
Miller kept his perfect record in tact against penalty shots, stopping Scott Nichol just 34 seconds into the second period. He has stopped all seven penalty shots he’s faced.
Nichol had snuck behind Jason Pominville and was in on a breakaway when Jaroslav Spacek slid into stop him. Spacek didn’t get any piece of the puck and the penalty shot was called.
Nichol tried to beat Miller high on the glove side, but the netminder made the save. Nichol was an 11th round draft choice of the Sabres in the 1993 entry draft, and played five games with the team over two seasons. He failed to register a point in those appearances.
But Miller later left the game with a bloody nose after Marek Zidlicky’s big shot from the point. The puck caromed off Miller’s mask and as he fell to the ice, the rebound went directly to Jan Hlavac, who scored into the empty net.
Jocelyn Thibault entered in relief, stopping just five of the shots he faced as the Predators climbed back into the game.
Miller returned, however, with 8:58 remaining in the second period, patting Thibault on the head.
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It’s often Andrew Peters doesn’t hustle into a fracas. But when the Sabres tough guy scored his first goal of the season and just the fourth of his career, he stood with his arms raised for a minute, enjoying the spotlight while Adam Mair tangled with a Nashville player.
Peters’ last goal came more than a year ago, on Feb. 20, 2007, against the Philadelphia Flyers. The play was an unlikely combination of two players not known for their offensive skills — Peters and Patrick Kaleta. While behind the net digging the puck out, Kaleta lobbed a perfect backhanded pass on to Peters’ stick. Peters buried a quick shot that beat Nashville goalie Chris Mason on his stick side.
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Jason Pominville kept another points streak alive with a second period goal, giving him points in the last six games.
Pominville has been red-hot of late, scoring 20 points in his last 16 games. He had an eight-game points streak from Jan. 29 to Feb. 12 then went two games without a point before his current streak started.
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Plenty has been made of the horrendous plus-minus ratings of Dallas’ Brad Richards and former Sabre Daniel Briere, who’s now with Philadelphia.
Nashville’s Radek Bonk, who was the third pick overall in the 1994 draft when Ottawa selected him, entered Wednesday’s game with a minus-22. That ranked him fourth-worst in the league behind Atlanta’s Steve McCarthy (-23), Briere (-24) and Richards (-25).
He did little to help his cause on Wednesday as he was on the ice during Steve Bernier’s second goal and Daniel Paille’s marker.
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In a bad piece of officiating, the Sabres led 6-4 in the third period when Nashville’s Dan Hamhuis tried to dump the puck in the Buffalo zone.
He hit his own teammate, Martin Erat, in the head, and Erat fell to the ice. The puck was blown dead even though the Sabres had a two-on-one the other way.
No matter. As soon as play restarted, Tim Connolly and Jason Pominville got another two-on-one, and Connolly’s nifty backhand gave the Sabres a 7-4 lead.
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The Niagara-Wheatfield club hockey team is no stranger to HSBC Arena — the Falcons captured their fourth straight Western New York Large Schools title by beating Grand Island on Sunday.
They followed that with a good showing against Depew in the high school shootout. Nick Burns scored for the Falcons as they tied Depew 1-1 with Nick Schiro and Mark Lucatra failing to score. Mike Slawich was in net for N-W.
Give Lucatra credit, the Falcons’ third shooter tried to get fancy, passing the puck between his legs, then pulling it to his stick from his skate. His shot went just wide of the post, though.
Contact group sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.
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