Final Score
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | OT | SO | Total | SOG | |
| Islanders (24-17-7) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | 1 | 31 |
| Sabres (21-21-6) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 22 |
Top Notes
- Jochen Hecht announced his retirement from the NHL after the game. Hecht finished his career ranked 12th in franchise history in games played (612), 18th in goals (138), 23rd in assists (207) and 18th in points (345). His plus/minus rating (plus-68) ranked 13th.
- Ryan Miller become the 62nd goaltender in NHL history to play 500 NHL games. Miller, who has spent his entire career with the Sabres, is the 20th goaltender in NHL history to play at least 500 games with one team and the 12th to play his first 500 with the same team.
- Of the 62 goaltenders who have reached the 500 GP mark, Miller ranks fifth with a .915 career save percentage and ranks 14th with a 2.59 goals against average. Dominik Hasek leads all of these goaltenders in both categories.
- With the shootout win, Miller improved to 43-27 in his career in the shootout, passing Martin Brodeur for second-most shootout wins by a goaltender (Henrik Lundqvist-45).
- Thomas Vanek finishes the season with a team-leading 20 goals and 41 points, and he tied Tyler Ennis for the team lead with 21 assists. It is the second time in his career that Vanek has led the Sabres in all three categories (last: 2010-11).
- Vanek improved to 3-for-5 in the shootout this season. He is now 19-for-53 in his career, passing Ales Kotalik for most shootout goals in franchise history. His five game-deciding goals tie Jason Pominville and Derek Roy for second-most, behind Kotalik.
- Christian Ehrhoff logged 30:09 of ice time, the fourth-highest total of his career.
Top Quotes
Buffalo forward Steve Ott:
On his first season in Buffalo: “The Jason Pominville line [during] the first game, the guys were awesome. I felt like I belonged here from day one. I had a really good time here this year … It wasn’t the success we wanted but, individually, I had a really great time with this group of guys but obviously we didn’t get it done.”
On a disappointing year: “We threw a lot of games away throughout the year. You beat on yourself for the games you give away and points here and there, but that’s the valuable experience we get from losing; you have to lose to continue to get better, and that’s something that all these young guys here we have that sour taste in our mouths and obviously it’s not where we wanted to be, but we finished the season off strong riding it all the way through and there is a lot to be said about that.”
New York defenseman Travis Hamonic:
On going into post-season after tonight’s game:
“Well, in my opinion, we showed up for 15 minutes, I thought we dominated for that short period of time. It’s in the past, its behind us. We are in the playoffs. Unfortunately, I wish we didn’t have to sit and wait to see who we play, but that’s the case and whoever we’re going to play we are going to play were going to be ready for.”On preparation for post-season:
“I think there is a lot to be taking away, we shouldn’t be sleeping for half the game, in my opinion. We got to come out with better effort. Postseason will be my first experience of that but we can’t come out and play like that for the first 35 minutes of the game and expect to get outcome in the playoffs. We have to be ready right from the start. I’m not going to sit and be negative – we have an exciting time coming up for our organization, our team and for our fan base. Like I said, who ever we play against we are going to be excited and I think we are ready for.”
New York forward Keith Aucoin:
On tonight’s game:
“We lacked luster for some reason. Then we battled in the third we were able to get the point. Overall, we weren’t really happy with our performance. We got to be ready the first 20, good news we are in playoffs, and it’s a new season now.”On playing with his line:
“We have been real good the last couple weeks. We are getting a lot of chances – we haven’t really got any bounces, we did tonight obviously with my goal. We’ve been playing good – good chemistry. It’s been good the last couple weeks, hopefully we can carry on in playoffs.”
