Ruff ain’t tuff and neither is Buff : Bruins win 3-1, 2 Point Redemption in Buffalo

Feb. 10, 2013; Buffalo, NY, USA; Boston Bruins left wing

(63) watches for the puck during the first period against the Buffalo Sabres at First Niagara Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

I apologize in advance for the word play in the title.. Don’t know where I was going with that exactly.

Putting my horrible wordplay aside, the Bruins win 3-1 over the Sabres in Buffalo. Taking 2 points away from the 11th seeded Sabres to go 8-1-1 on the season. Anton Khudobin got the starting job tonight against the Sabres and recorded his second win of the season to go 2-0-0.

The Boston Bruins from the start of this game put the jets on and outplayed and out muscled Buffalo. The best example of the out muscling was a 2 minute game of keep away in the Buffalo zone near the end of the first (reminiscent of the 2 minute shift the Bruins played against the Leafs at home last year.) Buffalo’s attempts to “out tough” the Bruins have fallen short since their 7-4 blow out of the Bruins in January.

Brad Marchand opened up the scoring with a give and go from Andrew Ference with Nathan Horton creating havoc in front of the net. Tyler Ennis would tie the game 18:01 into the first, and that would be all she wrote for Buffalo. The third period ushered in the Bruins first powerplay goal of the night after 4 chances from Patrice Bergeron, and Milan Lucic (public enemy number 1 ) would add an empty net goal to end it off for the Bruins.

Despite the divisional rivalry and long standing hatred between these two teams and their fanbases, I can’t help but give credit to the goaltending of Ryan Miller. Ryan Miller stopped 37 of 39 shots on the night and played a spectacular game against the Bruins, however it wasn’t spectacular enough to keep the Sabres going. Anton Khudobin’s performance tonight will obviously not be forgotten, stopping 25/26 shots and posting a .962 SV% against the Sabres. This is the second time strong goaltending has made up for any defensive zone mistakes by Boston, and the one goal from Tyler Ennis could be seen as a fluke with the way Khudobin played on the night.

The Bruins got their 2 point redemption and hope to continue their revenge game against New York with a match up at home against the New York Rangers on Tuesday.