Beauchemin's late goal lifts Avs past Sabres
By
Rick Sadowski
NHL.com Independent Correspondent
Tanguay scored the tying goal at 9:23 of the third period, his first goal since Oct. 30, and passed to Francois Beaucheminfor the winning goal with 31.7 seconds remaining.
"It's been quite a while," said Tanguay, who has three goals in 37 games this season. "I haven't been on the scoresheet as much as I would like, but a little before Christmas I started to play a little bit better. I just can't get in a groove and hopefully this will spark me to help the team a little bit more."
Beauchemin took a pass from Tanguay off the right-wing boards just inside the blue line and beat goalie Robin Lehner, who was screened by Matt Duchene.
"It was a nice pass off the wall from Alex and I was able to keep it in," Beauchemin said. "I had a lane at the net and I just threw it and it hit something in front. Sometimes that's all you need to get the goal. That's what we needed to get that win."
Evander Kane gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 16:38 of the second period after Nick Holden was penalized for high-sticking Phil Varone.
The Sabres worked the puck around in the Avalanche end and Ryan O'Reilly passed to Jack Eichel, who redirected the puck to Kane. Kane was between the circles when he spun around and beat goalie Semyon Varlamov to the stick side for his 10th goal.
O'Reilly was playing his first game against the Avalanche since he was traded to the Sabres on June 26. He played 21:54, had three shots, lost 15 of 25 faceoffs and was minus-2.
"We scored early, it gave us all the momentum," said O'Reilly, who heard some boos. "Yeah, a little bit, a small boo. It was weird, it was different. A different uniform, a different side of things. It was unfortunate not to win, but it was nice seeing those guys. Once you get on the ice it's just another game, you try to win it."
The Avalanche (24-21-3) have defeated the Sabres 10 consecutive times since a 6-4 loss on Dec. 4, 2005. They've won two games in a row overall and three of their past four.
The loss ended a two-game winning streak for the Sabres (19-24-4), who won four of their previous five.
Tanguay scored the tying goal, his first goal at home, shortly after the Sabres killed a double-minor to Kane for high-sticking Cody McLeod. Buffalo killed three Colorado power plays and has stopped 18 of 19 in an eight-game stretch.
Carl Soderberg slid the puck up the slot, it hit a couple of sticks, and Tanguay backhanded it by Lehner's glove into a half-open net.
"Beauchemin made a great pass to Carl and he kind of fumbled the puck a little bit and threw it back in front," Tanguay said. "It came back to my stick and the goalie almost got a glove on it. I was thankful it went in. Lots of relief, no doubt. It's the longest streak I've ever had. Hopefully those 20 pounds I shed after the goal will help me score a few more."
Sabres coach Dan Bylsma said he was feeling good about his team's chances before Tanguay tied the game.
"We certainly gave them the opportunity with the four-minute power play," Bylsma said. "I thought we were going to steal the game with the kill. It was a crucial part of the game. We didn't get those guys off the ice from the kill and they took advantage and scored the goal right after."
Limited to 17 shots through the first two periods, the Avalanche outshot the Sabres 18-5 in the third.
"We couldn't get through the neutral zone the first two periods," Beauchemin said. "We tried to be too cute, too fancy. We were going through guys in the neutral zone and they were just coming back our way and we were stuck in our zone for a while. In the third we got back to the simple game, getting the red line and getting it deep and in on the forecheck. When we do that we're really successful."
Lehner had 33 saves in his third appearance of the season. He missed 39 games because of a high-ankle sprain. Varlamov had 26 saves.
Sabres right wing Sam Reinhart sustained an upper-body injury in a second-period collision with Avalanche forwardJohn Mitchell and didn't return.
