Sabres 5, Flyers 2
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Buffalo Sabres stormed back from a 2-1 deficit to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 on Sunday in the First Niagara Center.
Tyler Myers scored the winning goal with just over five minutes remaining and Cody Hodgson gave the Sabres some breathing room with another goal with under four minutes to go.
Thomas Vanek had five points and two goals, including an empty-netter, and Steve Ott also scored in his first game with the Sabres. Ryan Miller had 27 saves.
Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux scored for the Flyers, who fell to 0-2 after an opening-day loss to Pittsburgh. Ilya Bryzgalov had 35 saves.
As could be expected after the lengthy lockout, the game did not get off to a flying start. The teams combined for just two shots through the first 10 minutes.
Ott got the Sabres on the board at 11:07 of the first period with a power-play blast from the slot.
The Flyers came back with two goals in the first five minutes of the second period. Couturier deflected Kurtis Foster's shot from the point to tie the score 2:23 into the second period and Giroux rifled a slap shot high to Miller's glove side to give Philadelphia a 2-1 lead on the power play at 4:57.
Vanek tied the score at 2 on a pretty breakaway goal at 15:54 in the second period. After a brief five-on-three power play expired, Drew Stafford found a streaking Vanek down the middle of the ice. Vanek had Bryzgalov down and out on a quick deke to his forehand.
The Sabres turned on the pressure in the third period and outshot the Flyers 40-29 overall.
NOTES: Flyers forward and former Sabres co-captain Danny Briere missed his second game in a row because of a wrist injury. ... Sabres first-round pick Mikhail Grigorenko is the sixth 18-year-old (18 years, 254 days) to dress for the Sabres on opening day. Only four players have played for Buffalo on opening day at a younger age: Pierre Turgeon (18 years, 41 days), Tom Barrasso (18 years, 188 days), Phil Housley (18 years, 211 days) and Shawn Anderson (18 years, 244 days). ... The Flyers swept the Sabres last season, going 3-0-1 against Buffalo. ... Philadelphia won the only prior season-opening game between these teams, 2-0 on Oct. 9, 2004. ... This was the first of Buffalo's nine sets of back-to-back games this season; last year, the Sabres had a league-high 21 back-to-back sets. ... This was the 158th meeting between the two teams.
