Amerks Sign Purchasing Agreement With the Sabres

From Amerks.com

The Rochester Americans announced today (Friday June 24th) that the team has signed a purchase agreement with the Buffalo Sabres Hockey Club. The AHL Board of Governors approved the sale earlier today.

The Sabres expect to hold a public press conference in Rochester next week to set forth their plans for the franchise.

Current Amerks owner Curt Styres will retain ownership of the Rochester Knighthawks franchise of the National Lacrosse League.

Enroth Nets 1st NHL Shutout - Sabres beat Rangers 1-0

Rookie Jhonas Enroth proved the Buffalo Sabres can win even without star goaltender Ryan Miller. Enroth stepped in for last season's Vezina Trophy winner and made 23 saves as the Sabres beat New York 1-0 on Wednesday, moving Buffalo past the Rangers into seventh place in the East.


Tim Connolly's second-period power-play goal was the only one of Buffalo's 35 shots to beat Henrik Lundqvist, but it was enough to give the Sabres 87 points, the same as the Rangers.  Buffalo has the edge because it has one more non-shootout win. Both teams are three points ahead of ninth-place Carolina, a 6-2 winner at home against Montreal, with five games remaining for all three teams.

The Sabres were forced to start Enroth when Miller, the NHL’s First Star last week, was a late scratch due to an upper-body injury -- possibly sustained when he took a shot near the collarbone during Tuesday's 4-3 loss at Toronto. Enroth, who lost an overtime decision to the Rangers in New York on Nov. 11, stepped in with his first NHL shutout.

The Sabres scored the game’s only goal at 5:28 of the second period. With Rangers defenseman Marc Staal in the box for interference, New York had a 3-on-1 shorthanded break only to have a pass blocked by rookie defenseman Marc-Andre Gragnani -- triggering a 3-on-2 rush the other way. Connolly took a pass from Thomas Vanek, opted to shoot from inside the left circle and beat Lundqvist high on the blocker side to send the sellout crowd of 18,690 into a frenzy.

Lundqvist, who had allowed just one goal in New York's last three games, was sharp throughout, routinely steering shots to safety, covering loose pucks in his crease and dictating the tempo in his own end. He received help from his teammates, including a diving block by Brian Boyle late in the first period to deny Vanek on a slap shot from close range.

Enroth did some of his best work in the final minute, after Lundqvist left for an extra attacker. He also benefitted from a first-period crease-interference call against call that negated an apparent goal by Artem Anisimov.

The Rangers have seen three of their last four games end 1-0 -- they sandwiched wins against Florida and Boston around a 2-1 shootout loss to Ottawa last week. The Rangers travel to Long Island to visit the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum Thursday night. The Sabres are off until they play at Washington on Saturday night.

from NHL.com

Gamenight in Calgary

The Buffalo Sabres take on the Calgary Flames tonight at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Here is Buffalo's projected forward line chart against the Flames (according to WGR 550 in Buffalo)

Thomas Vanek - Rob Niedermayer - Tyler Ennis
Drew Stafford -  Jochen Hecht - Jason Pominville
Mike Grier - Paul Gaustad - Cody McCormick
Nathan Gerbe - Luke Adam - Pat Kaleta


Goalie Match-up: Ryan Miller vs Mikka Kipprusoff

Buffalo's road trip will continue tomorrow night in Edmonton against the Oilers before coming home for a New Years Day date with the Boston Bruins at HSBC Arena before going back on the road to conclude the western road swing with stops in Colorado, San Jose and Phoenix to kick off the 2011 part of the schedule. 

Sabres Game Night

Tonight marks a trip to our Nation's Capital as the Buffalo Sabres take on the Washington Capitals tonight from the Verizon Center.
Buffalo are winners of two straight games in OT and one of those was against the Capitals on Saturday night at HSBC Arena to give the Sabres their first home victory of the season as Thomas Vanek scored for the Blue and Gold. Another highlight in that game was that Alex Ovechkin getting robbed on a breakaway by Ryan Miller.

Who's gonna win tonight's match-up? Only time will tell and the face-off from DC is around 7 pm

What is Behind the Sabres Lack of Production in the Playoffs?

The Sabres are one game away from elimination after former Sabre Miro Satan scored the game winner in Double Overtime last night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals at TD Garden in Boston. The Sabres led after 2 periods 2-0 on goals by Steve Montador and Tim Kennedy. But that was suppost to be all the support that Ryan Miller would need but in Buffalo playoff fashion, the Sabres blow the 2-0 lead in the first half of the third period when Boston scored two goals on the powerplay before netting in the game winner in the second Overtime period.

Where have the Sabres gone? Buffalo won the Northeast Division by putting the puck in the net, playing good defense and having the goalie that saves everything and then some. So far this post season the "real" Sabres have only been out once and that was in Game 1 back at HSBC Arena. Game 2 had its moments as well as Game 3 but the Sabres have failed to put the puck in the net and also fail to clear the puck away from the net. Some say that the reason behind the Sabres demise this post-season is due to the lack of offensive production and also the bad calls made by the referees. Lets talk about the refs for a minute... Yes Matt Ellis told the Buffalo media after Game 3 that the hit he took was a clean hit and yes it was to a point... the point being that his head was down and we know that when someone's head is down, you will be punnished for it... Just ask RJ Umberger after Brian Campbell hit him back in the 2005-2006 playoffs




So the hit was clean but the calls in Game 4 was absolutely terrible. I mean come on a bad call when Patrick Kaleta took Lucic to the boards and after Lucic fell to the ice, the refs called it boarding and as a result, Boston scored on the powerplay. And then the too-many men pelenty gave the Bruins the win in OT.

But lets move on to the lack of offensive production that is produced by the Sabres offense. The Sabres have scored 8 goals so far this postseason and that is not high enough to win a series and let alone, win a hockey game. The Sabres are averaging two goals a game and that is definitely not high enough to win a playoff game. Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek, Derek Roy plus others have failed in my eyes to produce this postseason. If the goal productions are coming from Craig Rivet, Steve Montador, Tim Kennedy and Mike Grier, you are not going to win hockey games I am sorry. Buffalo needs a goal scorer who can put the puck in the net and they also need someone to stand infront of the net in order to get a rebound or two and that creates offensive opportunities and they need them in order to score and to win.

Teams have trailed 3-1 in a best-of-seven series a total of 220 times and have come back to win the series on 20 of those occasions or 9.1% of the time.  The last time it happened was back in 2004 as the Montreal Canadians came back in the Conference Quarters and defeat the Boston Bruins. So it can be done Buffalo sports fans but it is along road ahead and it starts with Game 5 Friday night at HSBC Arena.

Sabres Playoffs Videos

This video is played at every Sabres home game during the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs.



So this brings me back to the last Playoff video open that the Sabres had... 2007 Better Days

Buffalo Beats New Jersey 2-1 in a Shootout

Colorado Ends Buffalo's 6 Game Win Streak

Matt Hendricks (pictured) scored the deciding goal in the 11th round of the shootout, rookie Matt Duchene scored twice in regulation, and the Colorado Avalanche snapped Buffalo's six-game winning streak with a 4-3 victory over the Sabres on Saturday night. The struggling Avalanche blew a two-goal lead in the final 20 minutes before Hendricks beat Sabres backup goalie Patrick Lalime with a nifty move to give Colorado (25-15-6) just its second victory in the last five games.

After three shooters on each team had scored, Hendricks faked a wrist shot in the slot before going to his backhand to slide the puck in. The move worked out better than it had earlier in the year when Hendricks ultimately fell into Chicago goalie Cristobal Huet after the fake. "I had a little too much speed the last time," said Hendricks, who also had an assist on Duchene's first goal. "Tonight it worked, and we got the win. That's the most important thing."

Duchene also scored in the shootout, fellow rookie Brandon Yip, playing in just his 10th NHL game, tallied for the fifth time and added an assist, and Craig Anderson made 32 saves for the Avalanche, who snapped a two-game losing streak. Colorado has yet to lose three straight this season. "It says a lot about the character of our team," the 18-year-old Duchene said. "We never got down, and it was a good effort by us."
Anderson was able to stop Buffalo defenseman Henrik Tallinder right before Hendricks' tally.
"They've got a great offensive team, a lot of firepower, and got momentum," Anderson said. "We did a good job of just sticking it out, and didn't panic."

Buffalo (28-11-5), looking to earn its longest win streak since opening the 2006-07 season with an NHL-record 10 consecutive victories, got goals from Drew Stafford, Thomas Vanek and Jochen Hecht 
Stafford added an assist, and Lalime made 27 saves in the loss.
Down 3-1 after 40 minutes, the Sabres beat Anderson twice on 15 third-period shots, with Hecht sending the game into overtime when his wrist shot got through from the right point with 4:12 left in regulation.
"We battled hard, and came out flying in the third," said Lalime, who was in search of his 200th career NHL goal. "That's the way we should play all the time. We had a lot of great chances, but we just didn't close the deal." Colorado played without captain Adam Foote, who returned to Denver after injuring his ankle during the second period in Friday's loss to Carolina. Head coach Joe Sacco said that Foote's injury was not as bad as originally thought, and is hoping the defenseman is back skating in a few days.

Duchene opened the scoring 7:35 into the game with a splendid individual effort. After stealing the puck from Tallinder in the right circle, Duchene fed Hendricks in the slot, then received a return pass before flipping the puck over Lalime. Duchene notched his second of the game, and 13th of the year, with 6:32 left in the first period, jamming home a loose puck in the crease. Stafford made it 2-1 with a power-play goal with 2:55 remaining in the second period, but Yip gave Colorado its two-goal lead back 62 seconds later when his wrist shot from the right circle eluded Lalime. Vanek scored midway through the third period to cut the deficit to 3-2. Then Jochen Hecht tied the game with less than five minutes remaining to send the game into Overtime.  "It's always a good point when you battle back," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "If you have energy in the third, you should have energy in the first. I wasn't happy with the first period, but we responded well for some of the things we did poorly early in the game."

NOTES: The 11 shootout rounds tied for the most in the NHL this season, and the seven combined goals scored in the shootout tied a league record, done on 10 other occasions. ... Avalanche defenseman John-Michael Liles returned after missing one game because of flu-like symptoms. ... The Sabres open a season-long seven-game road trip on Thursday in Atlanta. ... Buffalo is 7-0-3 at home since Dec. 9. ... No Avalanche player has recorded a hat trick since Milan Hejduk scored three times against St. Louis in December 2007. ... Tim Connolly extended his career-high points streak to nine games with an assist on Hecht's goal.

From the Associated Press 

Buffalo Wins 6th Straight With 3-2 Win over Leafs

The Buffalo Sabres continued their winning ways Friday night when they defeated their long time nemesis Toronto Maple Leafs at HSBC Arena by the score of 3-2. With the win, Buffalo now stands just one point out of the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Tyler Myers added a big chapter to his storybook rookie season. The 19-year old defenseman scored two of Buffalo's three power-play goals and assisted on the other in the Sabres' 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday night. "I'm having the time of my life," said Myers, second among NHL rookies with 26 points. "I was trying pretty hard for that third one, but more importantly we got the win."

The victory - Buffalo's sixth straight and 10th in a row against Toronto - was secured by goalie Ryan Miller  as the Michigan State product made a career-high 48 saves. South Buffalo native Tim Kennedy also scored for Buffalo. Matt Stajan and John Mitchell scored third-period goals for the Maple Leafs, and Vesa Toskala stopped 28 shots. Toronto has lost four of their last five.

"I really don't like them. They're a rival and they're in our division," said Miller, who has won all 10 games during the Toronto winning streak. "They constantly talk about how they're going to rough me up every night. I love nothing more than to get a win against them and send them an hour-and-a-half on their way."
In the season series, which only has an April 1 meeting in Toronto remaining, Miller has a goals-against average of 1.58 and a .960 save percentage.

Myers scored his fifth and sixth goals from close range against Toskala. On the first, which gave the Sabres a 2-0 lead with 2:21 remaining in the first period, Myers pinched in and took a nice cross-crease pass from Thomas Vanek. The second, 7 1/2 minutes into the second period, was similar, but Tim Connolly's shot drifted wide as Myers charged in for the tip.

Myers became the first Sabres defenseman with a multigoal game since Jaroslav Spacek scored twice at Philadelphia last Feb. 19. "They're giving me the green light to jump up whenever we have the opportunity," Myers said. "We're moving the puck quickly and more importantly getting the puck to the net." Kennedy opened the scoring 1:27 before Myers' first tally, wristing a shot past Toskala's short side. Buffalo's first two goals came after Toronto's

NOTES: Buffalo's 10 straight wins against Toronto tied a franchise mark for longest winning streak against one team. The Sabres beat Washington 10 times in a row between 1981 and 1984. ... Connolly had two assists to extend his points streak to a career-best eight games. ... Toronto has given up the first goal in 32 of its 45 games. ... Toronto C Phil Kessel continued to struggle. In his last 11 games, he has only one goal with no assists and a minus-8 rating.

Taken from the Associated Press report 

Steve is On the Air

Its that time again for the Morning Rant on WGCC-FM 90.7 from now till 12 noon today.  Steve and "the Voice" Kevin Nadrowski will be talking about the coaching search that is going on at One Bills Drive, preview the weekend for the Sabres and the first game of the 2010 NLL Season as the Rochester Knighthawks host the Buffalo Bandits on Saturday night at 8:05 plus the Amerks are also in competition as well at the Blue Cross Arena, hosting three games in three days. Also Steve will preview tonight's Non Conference contest between the #1 Oswego State Lakers and the #9 Adrian Bulldogs at the Campus Center Ice Arena.

WGCC is on the FM dial at 90.7 FM and also streams online 24/7 at www.wgcc-fm.com and you can listen live by CLICKING HERE


Photo Courtesy of Facebook 

Buffalo Comesback From 3-0 and Win in OT... Again

The Buffalo Sabres came back from a 3-0 defecit for the second consecuative game and defeat the Atlanta Thrashers 4-3 in OT at HSBC Arena. Derek Roy (pictured) scored off of a wild bounce of the glass from a dump in into the open net 4:02 into overtime to cap off the 4-3 comeback. The Sabres made franchise history as this was the first time that Buffalo has comeback from 3-0 for the second straight game. They did it on Tuesday night as they beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3. Roy told the AP, "That was the most wide-open net I've gotten in my career, I got a lucky bounce off the glass, it was a good bounce for us."

The unlikely goal came on what began as an innocent play when Sabres defenseman Tyler Myers got to the Atlanta blue line and dumped the puck in high along the left boards. Goalie Johan Hedberg anticipated the play, and immediately left his crease to go behind the net in a bid to play the puck. The puck, however, took a strange carom off the glass and bounced directly into the slot, where Roy swept it into the wide-open net.
"We definitely deserved a better fate," Hedberg said. "We were the better team. They had the bounces, you can say that."
The Sabres scored four times in the final 26:53 to win their third straight. Jochen Hecht had two goals and a helper while Baldwinsville native Tim Connolly had a goal and assist to end the Sabres six game skid against Atlanta. Buffalo became the first team to win consecutive games when trailing by three or more goals since Dallas did it in January 2006 in beating Anaheim 4-3 in a shootout and Detroit 6-3.
Ilya Kovalchuk registered his 600th career point as he scored for the Thrashers. Evander Kane and Bryan Little also lit the lamp for Atlanta who are now 0-5-2 in their last seven contests. The numbers looked very good for the Sabres, who improved to 9-9-1 when allowing the first goal, and 5-11-0 when trailing after two periods.

From the Ted Darling Press Box: The Thrashers are in the midst of a seven-game trip that concludes with games at Long Island on Saturday and at Pittsburgh on Tuesday... With Miller's selection to the U.S. team, the Sabres have five players scheduled to play in Vancouver: D Henrik Tallinder (Sweden), D Toni Lydman  (Finland), D Andrej Sekera (Slovakia) and minor-league F Philip Gogulla (Germany). And then there's coach Lindy Ruff, a Canadian team assistant. ... Sabres F Nathan Gerbe was activated off injured reserve and returned to Portland of the AHL on Thursday. ... Roy returned after missing two games because of an eye injury. Buffalo returns to the ice on Sunday for a 3:00 pm face-off at the Bell Centre in Montreal against the Canadians.

Happy New Year!!!!

Steve Petty Sports would like to wish everyone a Joyous 2010. Many College Football Bowl Games will be taking place on this January 1st including the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA between Ohio State and Oregon. On the professional sports scene, the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic will be taking place at Fenway Park in Boston between the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers. The Buffalo Sabres who played in the first ever Winter Classic will be hosting the Atlanta Thrashers at 7:30 pm this evening. On the local auto racing scene, Ransomville Speedway has their 10th annual Hangover 150 race for 4,6 and 8 cylinder enduro cars.
What a way to kick off 2010!!!

Sabres Steal One Away From Pens

Buffalo came all the way back from 3-0 to defeat the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins tonight at the HSBC Arena. Star-netminder Ryan Miller got pulled after allowing three goals on just 11 shots early in the second period and in came in Patrick Lalime (pictured - right)  to save the day. Lalime made 27 saves on all 27 shots that he faced.
Pittsburgh got the scoring going by a goal from Jordan Staal. Bill Guerin made it 2-0 to end the first period. Then in the second period, Chris Kunitz scored on a weak shot that beat Ryan Miller to bump the lead to 3-0 Pittsburgh. Then the Sabres got a huge momentum boost when Lalime came in for Miller.
Then Drew Stafford (pictured-left) was awarded a penalty shot and was successful on Marc-Andre Fleury to put Buffalo on the board. Stafford would score about two minutes later to cut the lead to 3-2 and then he made a great move to get around the Pens defense to set up Paul Gaustad to tie the game at the 7:28 mark of the third period. Then the Sabres powerplay got their act together after a 0-11 drought before Jason Pominville boosted the "Puckulation of Pominville" to put Buffalo ahead 4-3.
The Sabres would win a key faceoff against Sidney Crosby late in the game to secure the victory.
With the win, Buffalo now only trails the Washington Capitals by two points and the New Jersey Devils by three points for the top spot in the Eastern Conference with 52 points. The Penguins dropped to 1-3 in their past four games, and blew a chance to move into a tie with New Jersey atop the Conference standings. With 53 points, the Pens are two back of the Devils as they travel to the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ  to face their Atlantic Division rival on Wednesday night.
The last time Buffalo came back from trailing 3-0 was on January 16, 2009 as they defeated the Dallas Stars 5-4 in a shootout. Pittsburgh last blew a 3-0 lead on January 8, 2009 as the Nashville Predators skated away with a 5-3 win on home ice. 

The Penguins kicked off a four-game road trip tonight in Buffalo and  had their bus become stuck in the snow three blocks from the hotel. Coaches and team officials had to get out to push the bus so the team can get to the arena for the game. With 462 career wins with the Sabres, coach Lindy Ruff moved to within three of passing Glen Sather (Edmonton) for fourth place on the NHL list of coaching wins with one team.
Buffalo continues their current home-stand with a 7:30 PM faceoff against Max Afinogenov and the Atlanta Thrashers on New Years Day to ring in 2010. 

Buffalo Ends Skid With Win Over Blues

On a night with Chris Butler (pictured) returns to the lineup, the Sabres came back from trailing in the Sunday afternoon matchup in St. Louis with a huge 5-3 win over the Blues. Butler got two assists on the night including the assist on what was the game winning goal scored by Baldwinsville, NY native Tim Connolly on the Power Play. Butler was named the third star of the game by the working media. Mike Grier was the first star after his two goal performance. Jochen Hecht picked up his 150th career goal while Connolly added a short handed goal to put the game away late in the third period. Patrick Lalime made 32 saves on the night for his second win in his last four appearances since returning to the lineup after being sent down to Portland for assignment. Former Sabre netminder Ty Conklin made 19 saves on 24 shots he faced. Buffalo returns home to the friendly confinds of the HSBC Arena on Tuesday night as they take on the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins at 7:00 pm, a game you can hear on the Buffalo Sabres Radio Network, including the flagship station WGR 550AM.

From the Fanside of Steve Petty

This will be a first of many of what I call "From the Fanside". This will be a weekend review of the teams that I cover on the Steve Petty Sports site. Lets get right to it shall we?

First off...A great weekend for Oswego State Hockey as both the Women and Men came out and picked up wins against Buffalo State and Morrisville. The Women's hockey team defeated Buff State on Saturday by the score of 3-2. Team Captain Angie Friesen, sophomore Kelly Collins and fellow sophomore Jillian Bergeron scored the goals for the Lakers. On Saturday night ,the men took to the ice of the Campus Center and came out with a 8-1 win over SUNYAC foe Morrisville. Chris Laganiere scored a Hat Trick to lead the Lakers to thier 6th win on the season in SUNYAC play and a 8-1-0 record overall. Sunday afternoon, the women returned to action and competed the two game series sweep of the Buff State Bengals by the score of 3-0. Kendra Lemire and Kelly Collins scored the goals for the Lakers and Emi Williams had the shutout in net.

Off to Foxboro as the New England Patriots come back from losing to Indianapolis with a big 31-14 victory over their bitter rival, the New York Jets. Tom Brady was 28/41 for 310 yards and a touchdown for the Pats while Mark Sanchez was 8/21 for 136, one TD and four interceptions. Wes Welker had 192 yards recieving and Randy Moss caught a TD pass from Brady. The Pats are now 7-3 and have a two game lead over Miami in the AFC East Division while the Jets fall to 4-6. Next games for both teams: The Jets host Carolina while New England heads down to New Orleans to battle the 10-0 Saints on Monday Night Football.

Now lets "shuffle off to Buffalo" and discuss the losing weekend for Buffalo sports. The Bills, within a week of firing coach Dick Jauron, went to Jacksonville and was defeated by the Jags by the score of 18-15. Ryan Fitzpatrick played well and hooked up with T.O. for the longest play in Bills history for a 98 yard TD to give Buffalo the lead. However, the Jags came back and took the lead with less than a minute remaining in regulation. The next possession, Fitzpatrick threw a pick to secure the win for Jacksonville. The Bills host Miami on Sunday before heading North of the Border and the showdown with Mark Sanchez and the Jets at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

The Sabres had a difficult weekend against two strong opponents in the Northeast Division. The Sabres dropped a 2-1 decision in OT to the visiting Boston Bruins on Friday night as Thomas Vanek scored the lone goal for Buffalo. The follwing night, the Sabres went off to Ottawa for a battle with the Senators and the Sens took care of business, defeating Buffalo 5-3. Next game for Buffalo will be on Wednesday night as they head down to our nations capital and take on the Washington Capitals. Next home game will be on Saturday as they take on Oswego native Erik Cole and the Carolina Hurricanes.

Down the road in Rochester, the Amerks came off of a Keaton Ellerby Hat Trick on Friday night as they defeated their Thruway rival Syracuse Crunch by the score of 5-2. Next game for the first place Amerks will be on Tuesday night as they take on the Hamilton Bulldogs at Copps Colliseum. Friday night, they return to the friendly confines of the Blue Cross Arena for a showdown with the Wilkes-Barre Penguins at 7:05.

Thats it for the first installment of the Fanside with Steve Petty. I hope you had fun enjoying the first of what will be many installments.