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 The Florida Panthers goaltender recorded his third consecutive
shutout against the Sabres on Friday night, making 26 saves to lead
his team to a 1-0 win.
In his first game upon returning to the Panthers on March 7, Luongo
made 25 saves in a 2-0 victory over Buffalo. He also made 25 saves
to lead Vancouver to a 3-0 victory over Buffalo exactly one year
ago.
"It's crazy," Luongo said. "I know I shut them out in Florida too
for my first game, so it's nice. I don't know if it's a comfort
level thing or what not, but it's nice especially to get out first
win like that.
"I don't want to jinx it, so we'll keep it on the quiet side."
It was a gritty effort by the Panthers, who picked up their first
victory of the season under new head coach Gerard Gallant. The
Panthers (1-2-1) largely controlled the flow of play for 60 minutes.
"That's how we're going to be successful. We need four lines, we
need six defensemen and we need a great goaltender and we got a lot
of that tonight," Gallant said. "I thought we really took control of
the game in the first half. Not quite as well in the third period
but I thought we really played well."
Left winger Sean Bergenheim scored the lone goal for Florida in the
second period after Florida outshot Buffalo 16-3 through the first
20 minutes.
The goal came 3:01 into the second period on Bergenheim's first goal
of the season. After a faceoff loss by the Sabres in their own end,
Bergenheim fired a low shot past Sabres goalie Jhonas Enroth to the
far side of the net.
"I like that my goals come from in front of the net, shooting quick
or shooting a lot," Bergenheim said. "It's nice to see it go in, and
maybe I was a little bit surprised but you gotta shoot."
The offensively challenged Panthers hope that shoot-first philosophy
will pay dividends moving forward.
"I think we've just got to do more of that," right winger Scottie
Upshall said. "To score pretty goals in this league is tough to do,
so the more you just put pucks on net I think you're going to be
successful. We practiced it all week and I thought we had a bunch of
chances where guys were going to the net and playing hard hockey."
It was another rough outing for the Sabres (1-4-0), who were
thoroughly dominated at home for the second consecutive time.
Buffalo was outshot 44-12 in a demoralizing 5-1 loss to Anaheim on
Monday, after which head coach Ted Nolan had some strong words
regarding his team.
"I learned last time I can't say how I feel," Nolan said. "We're not
happy. We're definitely not happy. No one's going to help us get out
of this thing except for ourselves. We got a good group of guys. We
just got to learn we have to compete and we have to work. ... We're
not a fancy team. We can't rely on our skill to get us out of
trouble in certain occasions. We got to put that in our mindset
before the game starts."
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Enroth made 34 saves in the loss.
Buffalo's best opportunity to tie the score came midway through the
third period during a five-on-three advantage for 49 seconds.
Panthers defenseman Willie Mitchell got in the way of a Tyler Ennis
shot from short range, and Luongo ended the Sabres' zone time with a
glove save on a shot from the point by Buffalo defenseman Tyler
Myers.
After killing off the five-on-three, Sabres right winger Chris
Stewart had a golden opportunity in the slot, but his shot went wide
of the net. Seconds later, Stewart took a tripping penalty to end
the power play opportunity.
"We haven't really generated offense at all," Sabres right winger
Drew Stafford said. "Our defensive play, we've been running around a
lot. Bringing in talent is one thing, but we're still working on
getting that chemistry together."
Gallant said that the late penalty kill won his team the game.
"(Luongo) made 4-5 saves in the third period, real key saves for us,
especially that 3-on-5 when the guys did a great job killing that,"
Gallant said. "It was huge. Special teams a lot of times win you the
hockey game and I think that kill won us the hockey game for sure."
NOTES: D Tyson Strachan, D Nikita Zadorov and C Brian Flynn were
scratched for the Sabres. LW Shawn Thornton, D Erik Gudbranson and C
Brandon Pirri were scratched for the Panthers. ... This game
featured the top two picks from this summer's draft in Florida's
Aaron Ekblad (first overall) and Buffalo's Sam Reinhart (second
overall). According to Elias Sports Bureau, this was the earliest
date in the season that the top two picks in the previous draft went
up against each other since Oct. 11, 1997, when Joe Thornton
(Bruins) and Patrick Marleau (Sharks) faced each other. ... The
teams will next meet on Dec. 6in Florida. ... This was the 80th game
all time between Buffalo and Florida.
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