PHILADELPHIA — Ryan Miller stopped a shot from his knees and with six players in the crease. He saved one with Buffalo down two men. In the end, Miller stopped 35 shots for his second career postseason shutout and Patrick Kaleta scored to lift the Sabres to a 1-0 victory over the Flyers in Game 1 of the playoff series Thursday night.
“It’s important to establish that we can skate with these guys,” Miller said. “We like where we’re at, but that team over there has a lot of fight, and we’ll have to be ready.”
The Sabres — 10 points out of a playoffs spot Jan. 17 — cracked the scoreless tie 5:56 into the third when Kaleta powered a rebound past rookie Sergei Bobrovsky.
The Flyers went 0-for-5 on the power play, including a 5-on-3 advantage for 38 seconds in the second.
“It’s a momentum killer,” Flyers defenseman Matt Carle said. “I think it was the turning point.”
Canadiens 2, Bruins 0
BOSTON — Carey Price posted his third postseason shutout after starting just one of his team’s 19 playoff games last season, and Brian Gionta scored twice as Montreal took a 1-0 series lead.
“If we were able to write down on paper how we would have wanted to start the series this would have been it,” Price said.
Price stopped 31 shots, few of them challenging and most with no Bruins in the slot to block his view.
“You need to take away his vision,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “We were all around the net, but we weren’t in front.”
Sharks 3, Kings 2 (OT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Joe Pavelski beat Jonathan Quick with a wrister 14:44 into overtime as San Jose won the series opener.
The Associated Press
