The St. Louis Blues got a good bounce and a good review to get back to winning. Robby Fabbri scored with 6:34 left in the third period to give the Blues a 2-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres at First Niagara Center. Fabbri put a rebound of a Jay Bouwmeester shot off Sabres defenseman Josh Gorges and past goalie Linus Ullmark for his third goal of the season.
Sabres coach Dan Bylsma challenged the play, claiming the Blues were offside when they entered the zone, but after review the play was ruled good. Troy Brouwer kept his skate on the blue line as captain David Backes carried the puck into the zone. The Sabres had an opportunity to tie the game when Carl Gunnarsson was called for closing his hand on the puck with one minute left, but the Blues penalty killers blocked four shots.
The Blues have won two of the past three games. The Sabres have lost five straight. It was the Blues' first win when trailing after two periods and the Sabres' first loss when leading after two. St. Louis scored twice in the third period after it was down 1-0. Brouwer made it 1-1 at 5:07 with his fifth goal of the season. He tipped a shot from the point by Kevin Shattenkirk and backhanded the rebound past Ullmark. Shattenkirk, the NHL's Third Star of the Week, extended his point streak to six games with the assist (two goals, six assists). David Legwand gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead with 3:15 left in the second period with his first goal of the season. Legwand picked up a loose puck behind the net and stuffed it past Allen. The Blues led the Sabres 49-47 in shot attempts.
Blues Quotes
Robby Fabbri: "I'll take it any way it comes. I know a lot of the guys feel that way. I was lucky to get that bounce, and we've just got to keep it going."I didn't know where the puck was and I was just spinning around and I looked and saw it was in the net and I put my hands up. I didn't know who put it in or if it was me or not. It was something crazy like that."
Troy Brouwer: "I just tried to drag [my foot] as long as I could. I probably could've straddled the line and gone with it, but I didn't want to lose my speed. We weren't getting a lot of second opportunities. We had a couple good shifts before that, starting to get some momentum, create some opportunities. We were able to get one, and the second one was similar fashion."
Ken Hitchcock: "For the first two periods, we were looking for something easier and it wasn't there. They weren't going to go away. They've got great structure, they've got speed, they've got tenacity, they've got size, and they are starting to mature. So you're going to have to pay a price to beat them. They are not going to give anything easy. We had to dig in a lot deeper than we were going and we did in the third period."
"Our goalie was our best player again. It's beginning to be like a broken record, but you're grateful for it. You get games like this. Some games you get there's room, and you can move, and you can maneuver. There was nothing. They were on our [backsides] and they were checking and they were frustrating our big players. I thought we dug in in the third period and that was the difference."
Jake Allen: "It was a little bit of a chaotic first two periods, a little bit sloppy, some weird bounces for both teams. Pucks weren't laying flat for everyone. We tried to simplify our game. We had one period. It was only 1-0. We came out and did our job."
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