Sabres defeat Islanders 3-2 thanks to over 40 saves for Ryan Miller

The Sabres played yet another very sloppy game in New York Saturday when they stole a victory against the Islanders 3-2. Thomas Vanek again continued his MVP type performance so far this season notching another goal and a assist. He now has 11 goals and 12 assists on the year putting him first in the NHL in goals and points. Cody Hodgson had another impressive performance putting up 2 assists which puts him at 12 points on the year. When the Sabres made the trade for Hodgson last year sending Kassian to Vancouver as well as Gragnaini for Alex Sulzer I was a bit skeptical on how fast they gave up on Kassian but now that I am watching how well Hodgson has played with Vanek and Pominville, its worked out for both the Sabres and Canucks. Alex Sulzer scored the go ahead game winning goal 7 minutes into the 3rd period when he sniped a shot from the point from a pass from Steve Ott as rookie center Mikhail Grigorenko was perfectly screening goaltender Evgeni Nabakov to put the puck in. The Sabres were totally dominated in shots as the Islanders had 45 shots on goal compared to the Sabres whopping 15 but the difference was Ryan Miller. Miller was outstanding saving 43 shots including two clutch saves on a breakaway from Tavares and an amazing save on a penalty shot with about 4 minutes left in the third period. The Sabres defense was again terrible, Tyler Myers was a healthy scratch and in place of him was Andre Sekera who played pretty well but everyone else was again sloppy. Ehroff had a great goal to put the Sabres up 2-1 but was bad in his own zone causing the penalty shot for tripping as well as a couple penalties. Alex Sulzer played great in the offense zone scoring his third of the year but even he was outmatched physically in the defensive zone. The Sabres have their work cut out for them but for now they will take the 2 points and move on to take on the Boston Bruins Sunday night at First Niagara Center in Buffalo. The Sabres currently stand at 10th in the east with 11 points and a win tonight could put them right back into the playoffs.