Anton Khudobin Shuts Out Sabres

The Bruins took advantage of the Buffalo Sabres scoring woes as they pulled out a 3-0 victory in a goaltending duel.

The physicality started early as Kevan Miller gave Jacob Josefson a rough ride along the boards less than five minutes into the game.  Zach Bogosian took exception to the hit and the defensemen treated us to a rather spirited scrap at center ice.

The Sabres outplayed the Bruins for much of the first period and had a 17-10 advantage in shots.  However, both teams had quality scoring chances during the final couple of minutes of the period, but Anton Khudobin and Robin Lehner stepped up to keep the game scoreless at the break.

The Bruins dominated the play during the first half of the second period and after a three-point game versus Columbus last night, Jake DeBrusk broke the scoreless tie at the 10:14 mark.  DeBrusk entered the zone along the right boards and then fired a nasty wrist shot from the dot up and over the glove hand of Lehner.  Charlie McAvoy and Ryan Spooner had the assists on DeBrusk's eighth goal of the season.

We got a scare just over two minutes later as Khudobin lost his mask and was slow to get up after a scramble in front of the net.  Evan Rodrigues, who looked like he had some help from Sean Kuraly, made contact with Khudobin, causing him to hit his head and neck area into the goal post.  However, he was able to shake it off and stay in the game.

The Bruins nearly got a gift goal late in the third period.  As both teams were clearing the zone, Nathan Beaulieu passed back to his partner Zach Bogosian in front of the net and the pass hit off his stick and snuck in behind Lehner.  Fortunately for the Sabres, the puck stopped just shy of the goal line saving them from quite the embarrassment.

Former Sabre Tim Schaller iced the game with an empty-net goal at 18:09 moments after Noel Acciari made a painful shot block.  David Backes added a second empty netter with just over 30 seconds remaining in the game for a little more salt in the wound.

Although they were shutout, the Sabres played a very good hockey game, but just could not solve Anton Khudobin who made 36 saves for his first shutout of the year. 

The only bad news to come out of tonight's win was that the point streaks of both David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand were ended at 12 and nine games respectively.  The Bruins are back in action on Thursday night when they host Blake Wheeler and the Winnipeg Jets.