St. Louis Singing the Blues in Big Loss to the Sabres
Buffalo News
September 23 2005 (Buffalo, NY) -
The Buffalo Sabres stormed the net of beleaguered Blues goaltender Reinhard Divis all night, peppering him with 62 shots in a 7-3 victory last night at HSBC Arena.
Maxim Afinogenov (pictured) and Jason Pominville (below right) both scored twice for the Sabres, while Ales Kotalik, Derek Roy and Jochen Hecht notched singles. Afinogenov (2g 1a), Hecht (1g 2a), Chris Drury (3a), Pominville (2g), Roy (1g 1a) and Kotalik (1g 1a) all had multipoint games.
St. Louis got goals from Blake Evans, Scott Young and Andy Roach.
"Just a dominating performance offensively", enthused coach Lindy Ruff. "However, we have to tighten up quite a bit in our own end if we're to continue our success in the regular season. We allowed entirely too many odd-man situations in the defensive zone and Ryan (Buffalo goaltender Miller) had to stand on his head to keep them at bay."
Pominville is one of the great stories of camp and continues to make life difficult for Sabres management, who have to make a decision soon on the final cuts in camp.
"I've had a couple good years in Rochester and know I have to score if I want to make the club", implied Pominville, who has three goals and three assists in his three preseason games. "Today was a bit different, playing with Al (Kotalik) and Chris (Drury) but we seemed to gel out there right away."
"I want to get Connolly going so I changed things up a bit and put Hecht out there with him", Ruff indicated. "I thought it was his best game I've seen in quite some time from him." Connolly had ten shots on net and was robbed on a number of them but did contribute an assist in addition to a +3 rating.
Ruff's lines included: Druy centering Kotalik and Pominville, Connolly was inbetween Hecht and Afinogenov, Derek Roy was in the middle of Taylor Pyatt and Chris Thorburn while Adam Mair centered Clarke MacArthur and Andrew Peters.
On defense, Ruff employed Toni Lydman and Jeff Jillson, Brian Campbell and Rory Fitzpatrick and finally, Doug Janik and Henrik Tallinder.
| FINAL | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | TOTAL |
| St. Louis | 1 | 2 | 0 | | 3 |
| Buffalo | 4 | 2 | 1 | | 7 |
|
| FIRST PERIOD |
| SCORING |
| 1. Buffalo - A. Kotalik (C. Drury, J. Jillson), 0:26 |
| 2. Buffalo - M. Afinogenov (C. MacArthur, D. Roy), 9:50 (PP) |
| 3. Buffalo - D. Roy (T. Pyatt, H. Tallinder), 12:23 |
| 4. St. Louis - B. Evans (K. Tkachuk, E. Weinrich), 12:30 | |
| 5. Buffalo - J. Hecht (M. Afinogenov, B. Campbell), 19:44 | |
| PENALTIES |
| St. Louis - M. Sillinger (Cross Checking), 5:18 |
| St. Louis - J. Mayers (Elbowing), 7:58 | | | |
| SECOND PERIOD |
| SCORING |
| 6. Buffalo - M. Afinogenov (J. Hecht, T. Connolly), 15:05 |
| 7. St. Louis - S. Young (D. Weight), 16:02 (PP) | | |
| 8. St. Louis - A. Roach (S. Young, E. Weinrich), 18:21 (PP) | |
| 9. Buffalo - J. Pominville (C. Drury, J. Hecht), 18:59 (PP) | |
| PENALTIES |
| Buffalo - A. Mair (Cross Checking), 5:46 |
| St. Louis - R. Low (Roughing), 13:57 |
| Buffalo - J. Jillson (Roughing), 13:57 |
| Buffalo - A. Mair (Charging), 15:58 | | | | |
| Buffalo - C. MacArthur (Hooking), 16:26 | | | |
| St. Louis - J. Mayers (Interference), 18:35 |
| St. Louis - A. Roach (Hooking), 19:12 |
| THIRD PERIOD |
| SCORING |
| 10. Buffalo - J. Pominville (A. Kotalik, C. Drury), 13:48 |
| PENALTIES |
| Buffalo - J. Hecht (Interference), 5:53 | | | |
| St. Louis - S. Young (Charging), 10:41 | | | |
| St. Louis - B. Salvador (Charging), 17:28 | | | |
|
| GAME INFORMATION |
| SHOTS ON GOAL | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | TOTAL |
| St. Louis | 11 | 18 | 4 | | 33 |
| Buffalo | 20 | 22 | 20 | | 62 |
| GOALTENDING |
| St. Louis | R. Divis (L) |
| Buffalo | R. Miller (W) |
| POWERPLAYS | THREE STARS |
| St. Louis | 2 - 4 | 1. M. Afinogenov (BUF) 2g 1a +2 |
| Buffalo | 2 - 6 | 2. J. Hecht (BUF) 1g 2a +2 |
| ATTENDANCE | 13995 | 3. C. Drury (BUF) 3a +2 |