Sabres 4, Hurricanes 3 - SO

The Carolina Hurricanes scored two goals in the final 10 minutes of the game to tie things up, but ended up falling short in a long shootout as they lost to the Buffalo Sabres, 4-3 in front of 14,930 on Tuesday night at the PNC Arena.

The Canes, (0-2-1), are still looking for their first win of the season.

The Sabres were a tired team in the third period and had just played the afternoon before.  They only got three shots on goal in the period and none in the final 17 minutes of regulation.

The Hurricanes fell behind 1-0 in the first period on a two-on-one break by Chris Stewart and Marcus Foligno.  Andrej Sekera was injured on the play when he came rushing back on defense and tripped on Cam Ward's pads, while then crashing heavily into the boards.

Bill Peters said after the game that the x-rays were negative, but he had no other news.

Riley Nash tied the score with a shot in close just 30 seconds into the second period.  Jay Harrison got the assist.

Unfortunately for Carolina, the Sabres would score again just 1:23 later to regain the lead when the home team failed to clear the puck out of their zone.  Coach Peters said after the game that might be one goal he would like to have back.

It looked like Cam Ward misjudged the angle and was beaten far post on a shot by Torrey Mitchell.

The visitors made it 3-1 early in the third on another goal by Foligno and it looked like the Sabres might coast to their first win of the season, but the home team did not give up.

Chris Terry made it 3-2 off a nice feed by Zach Boychuk, then Terry returned the favor and fed his former Checkers linemate with a pass.  Boychuk made a nice quick shot that bounced in and out of the net so quickly the refs didn't see it.

But after a break in the action, the replay showed that it was an obvious goal and the score was tied.

After a scoreless overtime, each team sent eight shooters to the ice before a winner was determined in the shootout.

Matt Moulson scored the first goal on a beauty of a move for the Sabres.  Terry tied it when he got the puck just under Jhonas Enroth.

Nathan Gerbe hit the post on his attempt but that's as close as a Hurricane got to winning it.

Finally, Zemgus Girgensons finished it with a nice backhand move to give the Sabres their first win of the season.

The Canes will practice tomorrow then fly to New York to face the Rangers on Thursday night.

Game Notes:

• The Canes did well in the faceoff circle and won 68% of the game's faceoffs.  Once again Victor Rask led the way by winning 76%.  Nash was 68% and McClement was 63%.
• Carolina had trouble getting the puck to the net in this one and had 17 shots blocked and missed the net 28 times.  The Sabres only missed the net five times.  The Canes blocked 10. 
  
• Jay Harrison and Riley Nash each had a team high three shots on goal.  Alexander Semin had zero shots on goal but had a total of seven either blocked or missed. 
  
• Justin Faulk led the way with 24:03 of ice time.  Elias Lindholm led forwards with 22:33.
• The shootout shooters for Carolina were:  Semin, Terry, Gerbe, McClement, Rask, Boychuk, Lindholm, and Tlusty.