Night Of The Underdog

The Philadelphia Flyers, the Florida Panthers and the Buffalo Sabres aren't exactly having seasons to write home about. Going into last night's games, the teams had collectively only won 12 games (the same amount as the Phoenix Coyotes). Last night was a reminder that in the NHL, any team can beat any team on the night. Even Buffalo.

Buffalo Sabres

All three of the Buffalo Sabres' wins had come on the road and welcoming the in-form LA Kings to the First Niagra Center, it didn't look like a home win would be on the cards. 

At the end of the first period, the 2012 Stanley Cup champions were a goal to the good after Justin Williams slipped the puck past Ryan Miller in the second minute of the game. The Kings held the lead until just over half way through regulation when Cody Hodgson found an equaliser for Sabres. 

Hodgson became the Sabres two-goal hero when he took advantage of Justin Williams' hooking penalty to score a powerplay goal and give the Sabres the lead again. 

The lead wasn't last though as less than four minutes from the end of regulation, Dwight King scored to bring the Kings level again. 

Overtime didn't see any goals and it fell to Matt Moulson and Tyler Ennis to score the only goals of the penalty shoot out. Jonathan Quick left the ice just before the end of overtime with an injury and was replaced by Ben Scrivens. 

The two points taken by the Sabres still leaves them at the bottom of the league, but only one point behind the injury stricken Edmonton Oilers.

Philadelphia Flyers

While the Sabres hosted the Kings, the Flyers made the road trip to Ottawa to take on the Senators and the recently returned Craig Anderson.

Anderson's first concession came 16 minutes into the first period when Matt Read scored a sneaky wrap-around goal to put the Flyers on the board.

Jacub Voracek repeated the same trick in the first minute of the middle period. Voracek then scored his second (and the team's third) ten minutes later when the Sens' PK unit were unable to stop the Czech from wristing past Anderson. 

The third period saw the Flyers continue to dominate the game when Vincent Lecavalier was on hand to send a slapshot flying past Anderson, who by now was probably regretting his return to the team.

After Milan Michalek took a trip to the penalty box for tripping Steve Downie, Brayden Schenn took advantage of the extra man and scored the Flyers' fifth goal of the night. 

Astonishingly the game only saw four penalties, and three of those were for Ottawa. If Philly can maintain this sort of discipline then recovery may be in sight. 

Florida Panthers

It was another goalfest when the Panthers welcomed the Anaheim Ducks to the BB&T Center. Having lost nine in a row, the Panthers really needed a win.

The Ducks started early when Andrew Cogliano and Hampus Lindholm both scored past Tim Thomas in the first period to put the Ducks 2-0 up.

Just after the mid point of regulation, Shawn Matthias was on hand to put the Panthers on the board and just over a minute later, Scottie Upshall scored the equaliser to put the game at 2-2.

Brad Boyes scored the game winning goal less than five minutes into the third period.