In Buffalo, Anthony Stolarz made 45 saves, and the visiting Florida Panthers shutout the Sabres, 4-0 on Thursday night. 
“You want to go out there and you want to put on a strong performance,” Stolarz said. “I take a lot of pride in that. Obviously I know my role on the team. Anytime you can go out there and put up a pretty good performance like that, it’s good. The guys were working hard for me and I try to do that in return for them.”
Carter Verhaeghe hit for a double in the win.
The Panthers improved to 35-15-4.
“I think in our other back-to-backs we’ve been pretty strong,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “I think everybody’s also still in some ways reconditioning themselves off the All-Star break. … But we didn’t look anywhere near what we normally look like tonight. And I’m not complaining about the effort level. That’s what they had to give. These guys give what they have to give us. We just weren’t sharp or fast. But our goalie was good. And a lot of nights, that’s all that matters.”
Verhaeghe staked the Panthers to a 109 lead midway through the opening stanza when he scored after a turnover in the Sabres, the puck found its way to him for a simple lift into the net.
Anton Lundell doubled the advantage to 2-0 when added a marker at 17:16 of the middle frame.
The Sabres dropped to 23-26-4.
“I thought we ended up having to chase the game a little bit,” Sabres forward Alex Tuch said. “I think we tried to make it a point to try to get the first one, but obviously they were able to capitalize on a point-blank opportunity. And then from there, our power play is still struggling. We just weren’t able to capitalize on some opportunities and obviously Stolarz played really well over there. He made some really big stops for them. Obviously, well-deserved shutout, [45] saves.
“Just wasn’t good enough from us. Wasn’t good enough in those dirty areas, bearing down, and I think a little too many shots from the outside with no traffic made it a little easier on them.”
Verhaeghe collected his double at 18:27 of the third period with an empty-net strike and 3-0 lead.
Ryan Lomberg hit off the power play to seal the 4-0 win with 12 seconds left on the clock.
Eric Comrie made 27 saves in the loss.
“I felt pretty good,” Comrie, said. “I felt OK for the most part. I thought the team played really good in front of me. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the win.”
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