Oilers cut by Sabres

Edmonton Oilers vs Buffalo Sabres 2-3 (1-0, 0-1, 1-2)

Although the Sabres had been enjoying some good production from Vanek, Stafford, Connolly, Pominville and Roy, among others, they were outside of the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, sitting at 10th with a 26-27-5 record. Edmonton had just broken their extended losing streak and iced an unchanged lineup from the victory in Ottawa.

The elusive win last game seemed to have settled the Oilers a bit, as the copper-and-white were visibly calmer both on and off the puck in the first. Lee Falardeau's hooking gave the Sabres an early power play, but quality positioning from the PK unit allowed the Oilers to kill the penalty and even score upon Falardeau's return to the ice. At the first intermission the shots were close at 11-14 in favour of Buffalo.

Edmonton seized command of the play in the second and uncharacteristically of late they pinned the opposition in their zone for a number of shifts in a row. It was not enough, however, to keep super-veteran Owen Nolan from adding another one to his tally, and in turn equalizing the game.

The game opened up in the third, and it was the Sabres who went ahead as Derek Roy slipped by Gilbert and beat Khabibulin short side. After having gone 11 games without a point, speedster Andrew Cogliano timed his return to the score board well - expediting a pass from Laich to the back of the net. Fans were preparing for overtime, from how the game developed, but Clarke MacArthur took exception to the assumptions and scored on an unexpected wrap-around with just two minutes to go.

Post game: "Another game that could have gone either way" began GM Kowalski in the press conference, "but it did not go ours, and I find that very concerning". Ryan Miller was a big part of the win, but Hemsky, Cogliano and Penner will all be left pondering if they shouldn't have converted one of their big third period chances.

Scoreboard
1st Period:
EDM - Gagner (Penner, Falardeau)

2nd Period:
BUF - Nolan (Holmström, Stewart)

3rd Period:
BUF - Roy (Pominville, Hecht)
EDM - Cogliano (Laich, Tangradi)
BUF - MacArthur (Mair, Hunter)

Injuries/Misconducts/Etc.
-

Lines:
Penner - Gagner - Hemsky
Tangradi - Laich - Cogliano
Moore - Krysanov - Axelsson
Moreau - Falardeau - O'Marra

Babchuk - Visnovsky
Smid - Gilbert
Grebeshkov - Yonkman

Khabibulin
(Hiller)