Pominville sparks comeback effort, but Sabres fall short in Ottawa

OTTAWA -When the Ottawa Senators come to town on Saturday afternoon, you can bet the Buffalo Sabres will be looking to channel the way they played in the third period on Thursday night.
Trailing 3-0 when the period began, the Sabres dominated the final 20 minutes. Jason Pominville, playing his 1,000th NHL game, put them on the board with a deflection at the 1:00 mark. Jeff Skinner tipped another goal on the power play less than three minutes later.
The Sabres pressed to tie the game for the next 16 minutes, producing a multitude of grade-A chances as they outshot the Senators 23-7, but they never pushed a third goal by Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson. Bobby Ryan scored into an empty net to seal a 4-2 win for the Senators with 20 seconds remaining.

"We kind of got ourselves behind the eight ball," Pominville said. "It's tough to come back in this league. But that third period, man, we were going. We were on our toes. We had some zone time, we had some scoring chances. I thought we could have tied the game.
"… That should be our standard. That's the way we want to play."

Penalty trouble put the Sabres in an early hole. They took five penalties for the second straight game, including two in the first six minutes. The Senators opened the scoring on the latter, when Ryan Dzingel buried a rebound at the 6:55 mark of the first period.
Ottawa scored again on a lucky bounce one minute into the second, when a Dylan DeMelo shot deflected off the end boards, hit the back of the net and bounced in off the shoulder of Buffalo goalie Carter Hutton.
It seemed that any time the Sabres would begin to sustain pressure from that point on, a penalty would interrupt their flow.
"A lot of it had to do with the penalties," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "We drained a lot of energy. It just breaks up the flow of your bench. You've got a lot of guys who are killing and now you have to rotate. Some guys are missing shifts.
"They're not getting into the flow of the game, so you have to try to stay out of the box. We can kill one or two, but you can't kill five."
The line of Skinner, Jack Eichel and Pominville was one that did generate chances throughout the night. They combined for 18 shots (including a game-high seven from Eichel) and 28 shot attempts, and they played like they were shot out of a cannon to open the third period.
Pominville's goal - which extended his point streak to six games, during which he's tallied five goals and five assists - came on a deflection of a point shot from Eichel. It was a boon for the team, especially given the circumstances surrounding Pominville's night.

"We wanted to get a good start," Pominville said. "We had a good O-zone shift, got on the forecheck. We're able to get in, get a couple looks. Yeah, I think it got the boys fired up. It was nice to see. But it's unfortunate that we didn't get the start we wanted."
Skinner's goal was again the product of a net-front presence, this one a tip of a Rasmus Ristolainen shot.
"It's tough," Skinner said. I think you want to get in front of them, you want to get there for second opportunities. At the same time, they're trying to take that away from you, so you've got to find ways to get there. I think we did a really good job off that in the third. We just didn't do a good enough job in the first two."

The loss snapped a five-game point streak for the Sabres. They'll have a chance to rebound when they complete their home-and-home set with the Senators on Saturday.
"It's obviously disappointing, but I'm proud of the way we played in the third period," Hutton said. "It's a lesson learned here, and we face them again on Saturday. We've got to come out the way we finished the game."

Population 1,000

Jason Pominville became the 328th player to play 1,000 regular-season games and the 11th to accomplish the feat in a Sabres uniform. He was greeted by his family in the dressing room prior to the game and recognized by the Senators during the first period.

"Very respectful," he said. "Very classy, especially with the history we've had here. I didn't really know what to expect buy yeah, very classy by them."
Read about Pominville's journey to 1,000 games here.

Up next

The Sabres will celebrate Pominville's 1,000th game when they return home to host the Senators on Saturday afternoon. The first 12,000 fans in attendance will receive commemorative "Welcome to Pominville" signs. It will also be a Sabretooth Saturday.
Coverage on MSG-B begins at 1:30 p.m. with the GMC Game Night pregame show, or you can listen live on WGR 550. The puck drops at 7:30.