Beauchemin goals lifts Avs past Sabres
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Buffalo Sabres.Francois Beauchemin scored with 31.7 seconds remaining in the third period to give the Colorado Avalanche a 2-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres at Pepsi Center on Wednesday.
The Avalanche (24-21-3) have defeated the Sabres 10 consecutive times since a 6-4 loss on Dec. 4, 2005.
The loss ended a two-game winning streak for the Sabres (19-24-4), who won four of their previous five.
Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov made 27 saves. Sabres goalie Robin Lehner made 33.
The Avalanche tied the game 1-1 at 9:23 of the third period on a goal by Alex Tanguay, his third of the season, first since Oct. 30 and first at home. Carl Soderberg slid the puck up the slot, it hit a couple of sticks, and Tanguay backhanded it by Lehner's glove into a half-open net.
The goal came shortly after the Sabres killed a double-minor to Evander Kane for high-sticking Cody McLeod. Buffalo killed three Colorado power plays and has stopped 18 of 19 in an eight-game stretch.
Kane gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 16:38 of the second period after Nick Holden was penalized for high-sticking Philip Varone.
The Sabres worked the puck around in the Avalanche end and Ryan O'Reilly passed to Jack Eichel, who redirected the puck to Kane. Kane was between the circles when he spun around and beat Varlamov to the stick side for his 10th goal.
O´Reilly was playing his first game against the Avalanche since he was traded to the Sabres in June.
Colorado's best opportunity in the second period came on a power play that began at 11:42. The Avalanche had one official shot on goal but pressured the Sabres during a scramble. When the puck came to Holden in the left slot, he shot wide after Lehner lost his stick.
Lehner was making his third appearance of the season. He missed 39 games because of a high-ankle sprain.
Varlamov kept the Avalanche within a goal by stopping David Legwand on a breakaway with two minutes left in the first period.
Referee Dave Jackson left at 14:04 of the period after getting hit with a shot by Sabres defenseman Mike Weber, but he returned to begin the third.
Buffalo had three shots on a first-period power play after Colorado's Chris Bigras slashed Marcus Foligno at 13:52 to prevent a scoring chance. Foligno skated in on Varlamov after he stole the puck from Zach Redmond but wasn't able to get a shot on goal.
Sabres right wing Sam Reinhart sustained an upper-body injury in a second-period collision with Avalanche forward John Mitchell and didn't return.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
21/01/2016 - 06:30
