In Sunrise, Craig Anderson made 53 saves on Friday night and the Buffalo Sabres downed the Panthers, 3-1.
“You just kind of start worrying about just the next shot, and whatever the shot clock got to, it got to,” Anderson said. “That’s about as good a game as I’ve played in a while and as good mentally as far as being sharp and being in the moment. That’s always tough to do is to stay in the moment and tonight was one of those nights where I was able to do it.”
Jeff Skinner and Alex Tuch scored in the second period to give the Sabres a 2-0 lead.
“That’s a huge win, huge couple of wins,” Skinner said. “But I think for us with a big win last night in sort of an emotional way, to follow it up again the next night against a really good team that’s playing really well and playing hard, it was nice to see. Hopefully it gives us some confidence moving forward because that’s kind of going to be the level for us down the stretch here and we have to bring that every night.”
Skinner hit for a double in the win, his third period goal gave the Sabres a 3-1 lead midway through the frame.
Buffalo improved to 30-23-4.
“Outstanding,” Sabres coach Don Granato said. “He (Anderson) makes it look easy as well. Reads plays, reads shooters, obviously he knows how we play and knows the pre-scout of how they’re going to play and what’s going to come at him. And you can see the calm as a result. He was calm through the entire thing and extremely, extremely efficient in his saves and his postures. A big night for him.”
Carter Verhaeghe scored at 8:54 of the third period to cut the Sabres lead in half, 2-1.
“This was a huge home game and it is really disappointing to have the first two periods like that,” Verhaeghe said. “It [stinks]. We’re in a playoff push and there is nothing we can do about it now. We have to be ready moving forward.”
Anthony Duclair made his season debut for the Panthers, after recovering from an Achilles injury.
“I was just trying to find my legs in the first, felt better in the second and by the third I was pretty comfortable,” Duclair said. “It was just a question of timing and finding chemistry. All in all, after being out for seven months, I think I should be proud of myself.”
The Panthers dropped to 29-26-6.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 32 saves in the Panthers loss.
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