With 30 seconds left the game was tied and the Penguins were left stunned. Instead of capitalizing on their late power play, they tried to play in a lockdown mode to solidify the win and it cost them the game.

Game three proved just how exciting and intense playoff hockey is. As the game advanced to overtime you could sense the tension.

Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports

Everyone sitting on the edges of their seats watching each goalie make save after save. Both Tomas Vokoun and Craig Anderson put on a goaltending clinic, stoning shooters point black. In the end Anderson got the last save and the Senators now have life in the series.

Before the game I talked about what the Senators needed to do to get back into the series and win game 3. Get better goaltending, score more goals and keep Sidney Crosby off the scoreboard. The Senators managed to accomplish all three of those things and it resulted in a game 3 win.

While they didn’t have an offencive outburst, they did manage to outscore the Penguins. The key to winning a hockey game is to score more goals than your opponent before time runs out, the Senators managed to do that.

Game Notes

• Craig Anderson stopped 49 of 50 shots through 5 periods for the win. He stood tall all night, stopping rush after rush from the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and James Neal. With Anderson stopping virtually everything he saw, all the Senators had to do was score some goals. While he hadn’t been great through the first two games of the season, he looked stellar tonight. If Anderson plays as well as he did in game 3, there’s no reason the Senators can’t upset the Penguins.
• Aside from exciting hockey the other thing the playoffs are famous for is turning some-what unknown players into heroes. Remember Trevor Lewis and Dwight King from the LA Kings Stanley Cup win? They were virtual nobodies before the Stanley Cup Finals. Last night Colin Greening scored the overtime winner which gave life to the Senators. Greening is a player who has come alive during the playoffs. He’s scored 3 goals in his last 3-playoff games. Greening may not be a star like Kyle Turris or Jason Spezza but when he’s contributing it only helps the Sens.
• Jason Spezza played his first game since January 27th and looked pretty decent. He played just under 19 minutes registering 4 shots and winning 60% of his face-offs. Spezza’s return provided some offencive depth for the Senators and allowed them to play two top lines.
• After the game everyone was upset with the officiating. While no game will ever be officiated perfectly, the referees have not been great through the first two rounds of the playoffs. The call everyone is most upset about is a missed high-stick to the face of Erik Karlsson. Matt Cooke attempted to clear the puck but instead nailed Karlsson right in the face. There was no call on the play and Karlsson was not a happy camper. Should there have been a penalty on the play? Yes, but Erik Karlsson is beginning to get a bad reputation for diving. He was even given a penalty for diving in this game. It’s a shame because Karlsson is a fantastic young defenceman, but the book on him is that he’ll go down pretty easily with minimal contact. If Karlsson wants to get some of those close calls, he’ll need to stop diving, snapping his head back and yelling at the officials.

With game 4 set to go on Wednesday night, the Senators now know they can beat the Penguins and Tomas Vokoun. The Senators have life and fight; we’ll see if they can make the series into a war with a game 4 victory.

Feb 5, 2013; Ottawa, ON, CAN; Buffalo Sabres centre Cody Hodgson (19) tries to recover the rebound following a shot on Ottawa Senators goalie Craig Anderson (41) in the third period at Scotiabank Place. The Senators defeated the Sabres 4-3. Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports

The Buffalo Sabres were in need of a good showing tonight after back-to-back embarrassing performances on the ice this weekend including a big loss in Montreal on Saturday, and a blown lead against the Florida Panthers on Sunday. With the feeling of a potential comeback in the air tonight at Scotiabank Place as the Sabres fell behind early, it wasn’t meant to be as Buffalo lost 4-3 to the Ottawa Senators. There’s some serious cause for concern in Buffalo going forward as they have now lost 7 of their last 8 games.

FIRST PERIOD

Ottawa opened up the scoring midway through the first period on the powerplay with a screen shot taken by Erik Karlsson that was deflected in front of Jhonas Enroth. Ryan Miller got a break tonight with Enroth between the pipes for Buffalo. Enroth continues to struggle in net as his losing streak climbs to 12 games after tonight.

It wasn’t the start the Sabres were looking for tonight falling behind early, but they tied it up seconds after Ottawa’s goal as Tyler Ennis stuffed in a rebound off a shot by Drew Stafford.

Ottawa bounced back and took a 2-1 lead on a quick wrister by Senators defenseman Chris Philips. The shot came right off a face-off in the Sabres end and it was a puck that Enroth should have had.

The Sens padded their lead later in the period on a deadly wrist shot in the slot by their captain Daniel Alfredson. The young Mika Zibanejad got an assist on the play for Ottawa.

The Sabres found themselves behind early in Ottawa letting up three big goals in the first period and their poor play from the weekend seemed like it was carrying over into tonight’s game.

SECOND PERIOD

Buffalo came out strong early putting on good pressure during their second man-up advantage, but could not capitalize. The Sabres struggled on the powerplay tonight going 0/4.

Things were looking worse for Buffalo as Ottawa added to their lead with a goal from Chris Neil, going up 4-1.

Coming into this game Senators goaltender Craig Anderson had not let up a goal past the first period in any game so far this season. As bad as it was looking for the Sabres, the team showed some life with a nice heads up play by Jordan Leopold (haven’t heard that much this year). Leopold’s tip-in goal put the Sabres within 2 with about half the game left to be played.

THIRD PERIOD

The Sabres got a controversial goal from Jason Pominville late in the third period bringing them back within one. The goal was originally waved off by the on ice referees but further review showed it was indeed a legal play by Pominville with the puck going off his skate.

Buffalo played well during the period, shutting out the Senators for 20 minutes of hockey but the late game heroics were not in the works tonight for the Sabres as they fell to the Senators with a final of 4-3.

My thoughts on tonight’s game…

-First of all, is Thomas Vanek sick? He didn’t have any points tonight. Or maybe he’s just tired from carrying the team on his back all season.

-Even with a loss to show for, I was somewhat pleased with the team’s play tonight. The energy seemed better on the ice for Buffalo and there weren’t as many blatant scoring chances for the opposition as there had been in recent games. The defense seemed a bit tighter for Buffalo even with a few regulars scratched from the lineup. Even Tyler Myers played a little better than he has been with a few hits  to show for.

-Early on I had my eyes on Adam Pardy who was recalled from Rochester and playing in his first NHL game of the season for the Sabres. With Christian Ehrhoff out, Pardy was thrown into the lineup tonight and he made his presence felt early with a big hit on Ottawa’s Zack Smith in the first frame. He played well tonight moving the puck around and playing aggressive everywhere on the ice.

-One area that is really starting to frustrate me is the team’s performance in the faceoff circle. I’m convinced they don’t work on faceoffs at all during practice because they really suck.  Game after game it’s tiring watching them lose the majority of draws against teams with below-average faceoff stats. A big example of this tonight was the second goal scored by Ottawa that came right off the faceoff in the Sabres zone. If they win that draw, Ottawa doesn’t score and the game ends up 3-3 instead of 4-3.

-As bad as it was looking for Enroth in the first period, I’ll give him props for not allowing a goal through the 2^nd half of the game. But even with that being said, allowing 4 goals on 24 shots is unacceptable and the goaltending for Buffalo needs to tighten up.

-It was great to see scoring come from other lines on Buffalo but the offensive production was short lived  and the first line wasn’t able to bail out the team tonight. We need to see more of a point spread throughout the roster going forward.

-Buffalo showed some heart tonight battling back after being down 1-4, especially against a tough goaltender like Anderson, but regardless it’s still another tally in the loss column for Buffalo. The Sabres find themselves on a three game losing skid and things need to turn around soon or it is just going to get uglier for Buffalo.

The Sabres take on the Montreal Canadians at home this Thursday.