Milan Lucic and Paul Gaustad dropped the gloves right after opening faceoff, a fight that Lucic won with ease, but it was the Buffalo Sabres who kept up the intensity through the first 20 minutes of the period, scoring twice to take a 2-0 lead over the Boston Bruins after the first period.
Buffalo's two goals both came on the power play, with Christian Ernhoff scoring his second goal of the season on assists from Drew Stafford and Marc-Andre Gragani at 11:56 of the period. Thomas Vanek beat Tim Thomas for the Sabres' second goal at 15:22, assisted by Jason Pominville.
Thomas had 14 saves for Boston while Jhonas Enroth turned away all 12 shots he faced. Buffalo had 16 shots while Boston recorded 12 shots in the period. The B's racked up 20 penalty minutes while the Sabres had 16 minutes in the box.
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