Sabres Plunge Panthers

     The Florida Panthers were bounced by the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 on Saturday at KeyBank Center. The Panthers reached the midway point of the regular season playing in their 41st game.
     Buffalo(19-17-7) got up 1-0 with 7:11 left in the first period. Jack Eichel carried the puck from the right corner, around the Panthers cage and to the left corner. His diagonal pass went to Sam Reinhart in the high slot and he touched pass to his right. Henri Jokiharju roofed a wrist shot from the low right circle over the left shoulder of Sergei Bobrovsky.
     The Sabres continued their momentum in the second period as they scored their second goal on their sixth shot of the contest at the 1:33 mark. Jimmy Vesey made a short pass in the neutral to Marcus Johansson in the neutral zone. He brought it into the Panthers zone on the right side and backhanded a cross-ice pass for Conor Sheary to guide the puck in from the top of the crease for his seventh goal of the season.
     It became 3-0 for Buffalo on the man advantage at 5:42. Johansson and Rasmus Dahlin passed the puck back-and-forth between the right wing and the top of the zone. Reinhart would bury a one-time slap shot from the left wing for his 14th goal of the campaign. Chris Driedger replaced Bobrovsky in net for the Panthers following the goal.
     Florida(21-15-5) finally broke the shutout with 7:20 remaining in the third period. Colton Sceviour connected a pass to his left at the red line to Mike Matheson. He brought it down the left wing and snapped a high shot past Linus Ullmark for his fourth goal.
     The Panthers brought out an extra attacker and pulled their goalie with over two minutes to go. They scored and pulled it to 3-2 with 1:10 left. Alexander Barkov passed from the right goal line to Mike Hoffman ahd he took a wrist shot from above the top right circle which was saved. Evgenii Dadonov gathered the puck on the left side of the crease and placed it into the net for his 17th goal of the season.