Game Preview: 4/11/15 vs. PIT

GAME-DAY RESOURCES

LAST GAME
Friday, April 11
Buffalo 2 at Columbus 4
Goals: Grigorenko, Gionta
Goalie: Lindback (36 saves/39 shots); 1 ENG
PP: 1/3; PK: 1/1; Shots: Columbus 40 – Buffalo 25

CURRENT INJURIES – (Man Games Lost: 360)
Player (injury, first game missed) – total games missed
Cody McCormick (lower body, Jan. 13; injured reserve) – 38 games
Josh Gorges (lower body, Feb. 15; injured reserve) – 26 games
Evander Kane (shoulder, Feb. 15; injured reserve) – 26 games
Zemgus Girgensons (lower body, Feb. 26; injured reserve) – 20 games
Chad Johnson (lower body, March 6) – 17 games
Jerry D’Amigo (upper body, March 23) – 9 games
Mike Weber (sports hernia, April 3) – 4 games
Andre Benoit (upper body, April 10) – 1 game

TRANSACTIONS IN PAST 7 DAYS
4/7: Assigned F Tim Schaller and G Andrey Makarov to Rochester (AHL)
4/10: Recalled D Chad Ruhwedel from Rochester (AHL)

TONIGHT’S GAME
PENGUINS at SABRES

• This is the third and final meeting between the Sabres and Penguins this season.
• Last meeting: Pittsburgh defeated Buffalo, 6-1, in Buffalo on Nov. 8.
• The Sabres are 3-7-0 in their last 10 games vs. the Penguins; 2-6-2 at home.
• This is the 179th game all-time between Buffalo and Pittsburgh; Buffalo has a 64-73-41 series record.
• The Sabres are 40-26-22 at home against the Penguins all-time.

THIS DAY IN SABRES HISTORY

• The Sabres are 1-3-1 all-time (regular season) on April 11.
• April 11, 2001: Dominik Hasek makes 31 saves on 32 shots as the Sabres open the playoffs with a 2-1 win at Philadelphia.
• April 11, 2009: Thomas Vanek scores twice, reaching the 40-goal mark for the second time in his career, as the Sabres close the 2008-09 season with a 6-1 win at home against Boston.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• The Sabres are 22-14-7 all-time in the final game of the regular season, including a 5-2-2 record since 2005-06.
• Brian Gionta leads the Sabres with 39 career points (18+21) in 54 games against the Penguins.
• Buffalo is looking to avoid its first six-game losing streak against Pittsburgh since Feb. 1, 2010 to March 8, 2011.
• The Sabres have lost four straight home games to the Penguins for the first time since Nov. 30, 1999 to Dec. 26, 2000 and are looking to avoid losing five straight for the first time in the all-time series between the teams.
• Mikhail Grigorenko has scored goals in consecutive games for the first time in his career entering tonight’s game. A point tonight would give him his first career three-game point streak.
• Nicolas Deslauriers ranks ninth in the league with 259 hits.

STAYING REGULAR
The last 19 meetings between the Sabres and Penguins have been decided in regulation. The last overtime game was a 2-1 Penguins shootout win on Dec. 19, 2009 in Buffalo.

BACK-TO-BACK
Tonight’s game wraps up Buffalo’s last of 19 sets of back-to-back games this season, began with a 4-2 loss last night at CBJ. The Sabres are 4-14-1 in the first game of back-to-back sets and 4-13-1 in the second game. Buffalo’s point breakdown in previous back-to-back sets is: four points (1), three points (1), two points (5), one point (1) and zero points (10).

FINISHING STRONG
The Sabres have a 34-24-4 (.581) regular-season record in the month of April since the 2005-06 season, marking the team’s best month during that span. Buffalo has finished with a sub-.500 points percentage in April just twice in those nine seasons and would be .500 in April 2015 with a win tonight.

POINTS IN BUNCHES
After tallying a goal and an assist last night at CBJ, Brian Gionta now has six multi-point games in his last nine games played, becoming the first Sabres player to accomplish this feat since Andrej Sekera did so from Feb. 26 to March 13, 2011. With last night’s game, Gionta passed Tyler Ennis for the team lead with nine total multi-point games this season. Gionta has recorded 16 points (6+10) in his last 13 games, his most prolific 13-game stretch since Dec. 2008.

CONSISTENT PRODUCTION
Matt Moulson has not gone consecutive games played without recording a point since Feb. 15 and 17 and needs a point tonight to continue that trend. Since the beginning of this stretch, he has posted 18 points (5+13) in 22 games. Moulson has not gone consecutive home games without recording a point since Jan. 13 and 15. Since then, he has posted 13 points (3+10) in 15 home games.

BIGGER ROLE FOR LARSSON
Since assuming a larger role at the beginning of March, Johan Larsson has seen a marked improvement in several statistical categories (percentage stats include 5-on-5 play only):

BUF-PIT CONNECTIONS
Former Sabres:

• Christian Ehrhoff spent three seasons as a member of the Sabres from 2011-2014, tallying 87 points (16+71) in 192 games played.

Ted Nolan:

• Played 18 games and tallied two points (1+1) for the Penguins during the 1985-86 NHL season.

Danny Flynn:

• Served as an assistant coach alongside Gary Agnew for the London Knights during the 1988-87 season.

Bryan Trottier:

• Played three seasons for the Penguins (1990-1992, 1993-94), tallying 72 points (24+48) in 156 games before serving as an assistant coach from 1994-1997. Trottier was part of Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup champion teams in 1990-91 and 1991-92.
• Rick Tocchet played with Trottier for the Penguins during the 1991-92 and 1993-94 seasons.

Zach Dalpe:

• Played with Brandon Sutter for the Carolina Hurricanes from 2010-2012.

Brian Gionta:

• Played with Rob Scuderi at Boston College from 1997-2001.
• Played with Paul Martin for New Jersey Devils from 2003-2009. They were also teammates for the United States at the 2005 World Championship.
• Played with Maxim Lapierre for the Montreal Canadiens from 2009-2011.

Cody Hodgson:

• Shares a birthday with Blake Comeau. Comeau was born on Feb. 18, 1986, and Hodgson was born on Feb. 18, 1990.
• Played with Maxim Lapierre for the Vancouver Canucks from 2011-2012.

Patrick Kaleta:

• Played with Steve Downie for the Peterborough Petes during the 2005-06 season.

Johan Larsson:

• Represented Sweden alongside Patric Hornqvist at the 2012 World Championship.

Anders Lindback:

• Played with Patric Hornqvist and Nick Spaling for the Nashville Predators from 2010-2012.

Andrej Meszaros:

• Played with Steve Downie for the Tampa Bay Lightning from 2008-10 and again for the Philadelphia Flyers last season. Rick Tocchet’s was also the head coach of the Lightning at the time.

Matt Moulson:

• Drafted by the Penguins in the ninth round (263rd overall) of 2003 NHL Draft but never suited up for Pittsburgh.
• Played with Blake Comeau for the New York Islanders from 2009-2012

Tyson Strachan:

• Played with David Perron for the St. Louis Blues from 2008-2011. Ian Cole was also on the team during the 2010-11 season.

Phil Varone:

• Played with Nick Spaling for the Kitchener Rangers (OHL) from 2006-2008. Steve Downie was also a part of the team during the 2006-07 season.

NHL Draft:

• Andrej Meszaros and Evgeni Malkin were both first-round selections in the 2004 NHL Draft. Malkin was the second overall pick and Meszaros went 24th overall.
• Mikhail Grigorenko (12th overall) and Derrick Pouliot (eighth overall) were both selected in the first round of the 2012 NHL Draft.

SABRES REAL-TIME STATS LEADERS
Hits: Deslauriers (259), Foligno (187), Bogosian (183)
Blocked Shots: Weber (168), Gorges (148), Ristolainen (135)
Shots: Ennis (183), Moulson (155), Gionta (151)

SABRES’ RECORD IN 10 GAME SEGMENTS [W-L-OTL (PTS), GF/GA, PP, PK] 1-10: 2-8-0 (2), 11/33, 0/32, 33/39
11-20: 3-5-2 (8), 23/36, 4/27, 28/39
21-30: 7-3-0 (14), 22/22, 2/25, 20/25
31-40: 2-7-1 (5), 21/44, 4/27, 19/31
41-50: 0-10-0 (0), 17/43, 6/29, 26/37
51-60: 3-5-2 (8), 16/23, 3/27, 26/32
61-70: 3-5-2 (8), 24/33, 3/22, 21/30
71-80: 3-6-1 (7), 25/33, 7/32, 19/22
81-82: 0-1-0 (0), 2/4, 1/3, 1/1

OVERTIME RESULTS (1-3; 98-101 all-time)
October 30 vs. Boston: L, 3-2 (GDG-Marchand, 1:20)
December 13 vs. Florida: W, 4-3 (GDG-Zadorov, 0:29)
December 21 at Boston: L, 4-3 (Eriksson, 2:14)
March 26 vs. Arizona: L 4-3 (Gagner, 0:56)

SHOOTOUT RESULTS (8-5; 65-51 all-time)
October 14 at Carolina: W, 4-3 (GDG-Girgensons)
November 2 vs. Detroit: W, 3-2 (GDG-Girgensons)
November 5 vs. Montreal: L, 2-1 (GDG-Parenteau)
November 29 at Montreal: W, 4-3 (GDG-Flynn)
December 2 vs. Tampa Bay: W, 2-1 (GDG-Hodgson)
December 15 vs. Ottawa: W, 5-2 (GDG-Moulson)
December 27 vs. NY Islanders: W, 4-3 (GDG-Ennis)
February 17 at New Jersey: L, 2-1 (GDG-Gomez)
February 19 at Philadelphia: W, 3-2 (GDG-Flynn)
February 22 vs. Nashville: L, 2-1 (GDG-Forsberg)
March 11 at Toronto: L, 4-3 (GDG-Bozak)
March 16 vs. Washington: L, 4-3 (GDG-Kuznetsov)
March 17 at Boston: W, 2-1 (GDG-Ennis)

MILESTONES APPROACHING (Player … Needs … Milestone)
Assists
Zach Bogosian … 6 assists … 100 career assists

RECENT MILESTONES
N/A