Sabres Nip Chill in Monday Night Shootout

The fifth-place Chill faced-off against the second place Lite-Sabres on Monday night, in a game that featured few substitutions. When referee Barrie Harvey dropped the game’s first ball, the Chill only had one player on their bench, while the Sabres had nary a spare. But much to the relief of the Sabres, Chris Davison and Matt Monk both arrived with the game already in progress.

And several of the Sabres players must have had one eye on the door to the gym in the opening minutes, as the Chill stormed to a commanding 6-1 lead, led by four goals and one assist by Andrew Mercer. Sabres goalie Chris McMaster later remarked that he looked towards the bench to pull himself, but there was nobody there.

Despite the slow start, the Sabres managed to outscore the Chill 3-0 in the waning minutes of the period, spurred by two Kevin Haddad goals, cutting the first intermission lead to 6-4.

After the 10-goal, 40-shot first period, things settled down in the second. When Haddad and Rob Romaine scored back-to-back goals for the Sabres, the game was tied and the Sabre faithful had reason to cheer. But the high-flying Chill were undaunted by the comeback. Chill forward Dave Watson first converted a goal mouth pass from Andrew Mercer to reestablish the Chill lead. Then Andrew Mercer’s brother Craig scored his second of the game to put the Chill up by two goals.

But again, the Sabres finished the period strong, scoring the final two goals of the stanza to once again tie the game.

The scoring in the third period was back-and-forth, with the Chill always edging ahead, only to be caught be the Sabres. When Andrew Mercer scored his seventh goal of the game midway through the final frame to give the Chill an 11-10 lead, the Sabres were wondering if they would ever take the lead in the game. But for the third time in the period, the Sabres immediately tied the game when Matt Monk’s point shot curved into the corner of the Chill net.

But with only one substitution, the Chill faded just a bit in the final minutes. Mike Sullivan gave the Sabres their first lead of the game at 12-11, then Haddad scored his sixth and seventh goals of the game to cap a 14-11 victory for the Sabres.

Andrew Mercer, who finished the game with 10 points, assumed the lead in the league scoring race, at least until the Thursday night games. Haddad also finished with 10 points, enough to move him into third place overall in league scoring.

Defensive stalwart Mike Sullivan continued his knack for scoring game-winning goals. With the game-winning tally in this game, the low-scoring Sullivan is now tied for the league lead with two game winners this season. He now has 5 game winners out of only 30 career goals.

With the win, the Sabres move one point behind the first-place Hackers, with the Hackers having one game in hand. The Sabres are also certain that they will finish in one of the first four positions. The Chill drop to 1-5-1, and are now assured that they will not get a first-round bye in the playoffs. Because of the Sabres victory, the Keane Fire is also guaranteed that they will be playing in the quarterfinals.