NHL - Sabres hit back to beat Islanders

Reuters - Thu, 05 Nov 07:13:00 2009

The Buffalo Sabres avenged a recent thrashing at the hands of the New York Islanders with a 3-0 home victory.

NHL - Buffalo Sabres center Paul Gaustad, right, goes for the rebound after a save by New York Islanders goalie Martin Biron, center, as Islanders defenseman Mark Streit, of Switzerland, tries to stick-check during the third period in Buffalo - 0

Derek Roy scored his first goal of the season and Ryan Miller made 24 saves for the shutout as the Sabres earned retribution for a 5-0 thumping by the Islanders on Saturday.

"We played a real sound game coming off that loss," Miller said. "We did a very sound job pushing the puck up the ice, and we didn't give up anything that was too dangerous.

"We want to be a team that's in control."

Buffalo (9-2-1) won their fifth game in their last six while New York (5-5-5) had their four-game winning streak snapped. New York goaltender Martin Biron made 36 saves in the defeat.

Roy opened the scoring with a wrist shot at 8:27 in the first period, allowing the center to snap his goal drought this season. He scored 60 goals over the last two seasons.

Thomas Vanek netted a wrist shot at 17:13 in the second to give Buffalo a 2-0 lead before Paul Gaustad completed the scoring with 3:41 to go in the game.

Miller earned his second shutout of the season to improve to 9-1-1. The Northeast Division-leading Sabres have allowed just 24 goals in 12 games this season.

"We took some bad penalties in the first period that we certainly didn't have to take," said Islanders coach Scott Gordon. "It kind of just set the tempo for the whole game."

NHL results on Wednesday (home team in CAPS):

BUFFALO 3 NY Islanders 0

NEW JERSEY 3 Washington 2

San Jose 3 COLUMBUS 2 (SO)

FLORIDA 3 Carolina 0

Calgary 3 DALLAS 2 (OT)

COLORADO 4 Phoenix 1

Reuters

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