Sabres 2, Flames 1
Drew Stafford and Nathan Gerbe scored goals to lift the Buffalo Sabres to a 2-1 victory over the visiting Calgary Flames on Friday night.
Jhonas Enroth made 29 saves to improve to 3-0-0 on the season as Buffalo snapped a two-game losing streak and improved to 9-1-1 in its last 11 home games against the Flames.
Henrik Karlsson took the loss despite turning aside a career-high 42 shots for Calgary.
Stafford gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 7:59 of the first period, taking a cross-ice pass from Derek Roy and blistering a one-timer from the top of the left faceoff circle past the waving glove of Karlsson.
Gerbe doubled the advantage at 1:45 of the third with another one-timer, but Calgary’s Alex Tanguay cut the deficit in half exactly four minutes later, redirecting a shot by Jay Bouwmeester past Enroth.
Buffalo had two excellent chances to widen the margin, but Stafford misfired on a two-on-none break and Jason Pominville had an apparent goal waved off when the referee whistled that the puck was dead.