ANAHEIM
Mikael Granlund Jersey , Calif. (AP) — The Buffalo Sabres‘ West Coast trip was in danger of slipping off the rails before they got right back on track with
a Southern California sweep.Rasmus Ristolainen scored a tiebreaking power-play
goal early in the third period, and the Sabres rallied from a two-goal deficit
for a 4-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night.The Ducks had a 2-0
lead late in the second period when the Sabres suddenly got rewarded for their
persistence in the final stop of their five-game trip.Kyle Okposo and Jeff
Skinner scored 88 seconds apart in the second before Ristolainen ripped a rising
slap shot through traffic and past former Sabres goalie Ryan Miller for his
first goal of the season.Patrik Berglund added an empty-net goal as the Sabres
followed up a blowout win over Los Angeles on Saturday with a comeback in Orange
County. After back-to-back discouraging losses in Vegas and San Jose, the Sabres
gathered themselves and earned their long-struggling club’s first back-to-back
wins in SoCal since 2003.“Two complete games that we just played,” said Okposo,
who got his first goal of the season on a power play. “I thought that was the
first time all year that we got down in a game and we just never changed the way
that we played. That second (Ducks) goal could have been a backbreaker for us,
but we just stuck with it. We played the exact same way and we got
rewarded.”Finishing a five-game trip with three victories also is a noteworthy
development in the early stages of the Sabres’ attempt to end their seven-year
playoff drought.“Especially on the road, you want to come back and have a good
response when you go down,” said Skinner, who has five goals in the last five
games after his hat trick against the Kings. “Down the stretch, we made some big
plays. It’s a nice feeling when you win like that.”Okposo had a goal and an
assist, and Carter Hutton made several big saves in the frantic final minute.
Sam Reinhart had two assists and Hutton stopped 26 shots.Sam Steel scored his
first NHL goal and Kiefer Sherwood scored his second NHL goal for the Ducks, who
lost their second straight after a 5-1-1 start to the season. Anaheim is still
missing injured forwards Corey Perry, Patrick Eaves
Youth Mikko Koivu Jersey , Ondrej Kase and Jakob Silfverberg.“You’re trying to get to know each other,” Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf said. “We have so
many guys in and out of the lineup right now. It’s hard to get that chemistry.
It doesn’t excuse the lack of compete we had tonight.”Miller made 41 saves for
Anaheim against the organization with which he spent his first 12 professional
seasons and won the Vezina Trophy in 2010. Miller is the Sabres’ franchise
leader with 284 victories and 540 games played in net, but he lost for only the
second time in his five career starts against the Sabres.“We’ve been trying to
clean it up as we’ve been going,” Miller said. “But we’re giving up probably too
many power play and a few too many shots. It just needs to be better.”Before the
game, a sellout crowd celebrated when the Ducks raised Hall of Fame forward Paul
Kariya’s No. 9 to the rafters in the second number retirement in franchise
history. Kariya, the first draft pick in the then-Mighty Ducks’ history, played
his first nine NHL seasons with Anaheim, scoring 300 goals.The Ducks are short
on veterans, but their newcomers contributed.The 20-year-old Steel tipped
Brandon Montour’s long shot late in the first period for his first goal in his
ninth NHL game.Moments after the Ducks ended a prolonged stretch of Buffalo puck
possession in the second, Sherwood scored on a break with a long shot. The
23-year-old Ohio native grew up idolizing Kariya for their shared Japanese
ancestry, and the undrafted free agent has seized a chance to play on the right
wing in Anaheim with Perry sidelined.The Sabres quickly erased the lead with a
pair of strong plays by Okposo and Skinner, who used his speed to slip behind
Anaheim’s defense.“If you continue to give teams opportunities to practice the
power play, you are going to give them life
http://www.minnesotawildteamshops.com/authentic-ryan-suter-jersey ,” said Ducks coach Randy Carlyle, whose team has yielded 13 power plays in the
last three games. “The telltale sign (of poor play) for me is I’ve had to mix
lines up three games in a row because I wasn’t happy with what was happening out
there.”NOTES: Montour had two assists. … Silfverberg missed his third straight
game with a broken fingertip. Perry (knee), Eaves (shoulder) and Kase
(concussion) haven’t played all season, while Nick Ritchie hasn’t played since
ending his contract holdout Wednesday. … The teams meet again in Buffalo on Dec.
22.UP NEXTSabres: Host Montreal on Thursday.Ducks: At Chicago on Tuesday.
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — Calgary Flames coach Bill Peters is seeing a payoff for
moving newcomer Elias Lindholm onto the Flames’ top line.Lindholm scored his
first two goals with Calgary and the Flames scored four unanswered goals in the
third period for a 7-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.The
Swede, acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes in a trade at the June draft,
scored a power-play goal that was the eventual game-winner at 14:28 of the third
period.With Canucks forward Nikolay Goldobin serving a slashing penalty,
Lindholm beat goalie Jakob Markstrom on the short side off a cross-ice feed from
Johnny Gaudreau.Gaudreau had a goal and two assists, joining Lindholm, who added
an assist, in a three-point game.“Most guys take some time to fit into new
systems but he was able to slot in right away,” Peters said. “The line with him,
(Sean) Monahan and Gaudreau has a lot of potential heading into this
season.”Flames captain Mark Giordano and Monahan also scored for Calgary
(1-1-0)
Brandon Manning Jersey Womens , with Austin Czarnik and Michael Frolik adding empty-net goals. Matthew Tkachuk had four assists.“Monny’s a goal-scoring
center and Johnny’s a play-making winger,” Peters said. “It used to be your
center made plays and your winger scored goals, so they’ve got that a little bit
flip-flopped. That’s fine.”Flames starter Mike Smith made 16 saves for the win,
while Markstrom had 30 saves in the loss.Elias Pettersson scored two goals and
assisted on another for the Canucks, who beat the visiting Flames 5-2 in
Wednesday’s season-opener.The 19-year-old Swede has five points in his first two
career NHL games.“Dynamite,” Canucks head coach Travis Green said. “He was our
best player tonight. He was one of the bright spots in the game. A few guys
played OK. We had some guys that needed to play better.”Brandon Sutter scored a
short-handed goal and Bo Horvat had a goal for Vancouver, which led 4-3 heading
into the third period.Monahan’s power-play goal at 9:27 of the third tied the
game at 4-4. After the center redirected a cross-ice pass from Gaudreau by
Markstrom, Smith robbed Goldobin with a glove save.Penalized for hauling down
Pettersson near Calgary’s net late in the second period, Flames defenseman
Michael Stone joined Giordano in the penalty box and the Canucks had a two-man
advantage.Horvat redirected Pettersson’s feed for a power-play goal at
16:57.Tkachuk tucked the puck into the corner of Vancouver’s net during a
goal-mouth scramble, but a coach’s challenge wiped out the goal in the second
period.But Gaudreau then banged in a rebound off a Monahan shot for a power-play
goal at 9:31 to even the score 3-3.Pettersson scored his second goal with a shot
from the face-off circle at 2:52 on the power-play.Giordano tied the game 2-2 at
17:08 of the first period. Calgary’s captain beat Markstrom with a wrist shot
from the top of the face-off circle.The visitors led 2-1 on a Sutter’s
short-handed goal at 16:38. He beat Smith with a shot under the arm on a
2-on-1.Pettersson swept the puck by Smith’s glove from the slot at 13:50 for his
first goal of the night.Lindholm scored his first goal just 12 seconds after the
opening puck drop.After winning the offensive-zone faceoff, the Swede tipped
T.J. Brodie’s wrist shot from the boards by Markstrom.NOTES: Calgary was minus
defenseman Travis Hamonic on Saturday because of a facial fracture he sustained
in a fight Wednesday with Canucks defenseman Erik Gudbrandson. … Noah Hanifin
moved up to partner Stone on Calgary’s No. 2 defensive pairing. Dalton Prout
drew into the lineup alongside rookie Juusu Valimaki, who turned 20 on
Saturday.NEXT UPFlames embark on a three-game road trip starting Tuesday in
Nashville.Canucks have another five games remaining on a six-game swing away
from Rogers Arena.
