A track meet. Plenty of offense. Penalty shot. Lots of scoring. A few fights. And a big Buffalo win. What more could one ask for in an evening of hockey?

Tonight at HSBC Arena the Buffalo Sabres got their first ever home win over the Nashville Predators by a score of 8-4.Steve Bernier would get his first goal as a Sabre at the 4:33 mark, as he and Derek Roy broke in on a 2 on 1 break. Roy slid the puck across to Bernier, who had nothing but net. Bernier then added his second goal later in the period, a slap shot off the top of the face off circle, scored on a delayed penalty to Nashville.

Early in the second period Predators center Scott Nichol was awarded a penalty shot when Jaro Spacek threw his stick on an apparent breakaway. Nichol’s attempt was stopped by goalie Ryan Miller. Daniel Paille would then make the score 3-0 Buffalo, taking the puck off a giveaway in the corner and putting it past Nashville goaltender Chris Mason.

But Nashville would come back with two quick goals to narrow the lead to 3-2, Ryan Miller would leave the game after the first Nashville goal, suffering a bloody nose from a puck which struck him in the helmet, and was replaced by Jocelyn Thibault between the pipes.

Buffalo got a two goal cushion back quickly, on a nifty goal by Andrew Peters, of all people, Peter’s first goal of the season. Peters was fed a pass from behind the net by Patrick Kaleta and sent a blistering shot into the net. Lindy Ruff mentioned Peter’s goal as a turning point - “That was a big shift for us. A great goal for us. Those guys don’t get mentioned often but the grit they showed is important for our team and sometimes goes unnoticed.”

Peters was ecstatic about scoring his first goal of the season, but was deferential towards his new teammate Steve Bernier. Said Peters, “I can’t say enough about the guy. He came in here this morning and was an instant hit in the locker room. Great guy, great personality and I could tell he was a real team guy. I’m just happy that the monkey is off his back and he went out and had a great game, and hopefully we can keep that line going.” Then Peters joked, “I’m just sorry I had to score and rain on his parade a little bit.”

Nashville cut the lead to 4-3 at the 7:53 mark on Jason Arnott’s second of the game and his 24th of the season. Miller then returned to the net around the 12 minute mark.

Jason Pominville would add to the Sabres lead at the 14:50 mark, on a great feed pass from Ales Kotalik, who waited and waited until his trailing center could get into position to take the shot. That goal chased Mason from the Nashville net in favor of back up goalie Dan Ellis. Derek Roy then made it 6-3, and that is how the period ended. Buffalo scored 4 goals in the second frame on just 6 shots.

In the 3rd period Nashville scored an early power play goal by David Legwand to again cut their deficit to two goals. Midway through the period there were back to back fights – Andrew Peters and Darcy Hordichuk traded blows, with Peters ending up in the bottom of the pile, then right off the faceoff Jordin Tootoo gave an old fashioned beatdown to Buffalo’s Adam Mair.

Shortly thereafter Buffalo got their three goal cushion back, as Tim Connolly took the puck in himself on a 2 on 1, executing the perfect deek. Later on Ales Kotalik would make it 8-4 on his 19th of the season. That would be it for the scoring, but not before Bernier gave Tootoo a nice licking after Tootoo cheapshotted Derek Roy. Peters said “That showed a lot of character on his part.” Ruff also heaped a lot of praise on Bernier’s debut. “It was great to see. He set up a couple great opportunities. He missed a chance when he walked in all alone. But it’s going to get tough for him. He made it look easy tonight.”

While this game had a lot of side stories and elements to it - all four goalies facing action, at least three fights and other scrums, 12 goals, it was Bernier’s night. He earned the game’s first star and when he skated out to take his bow he received a thunderous ovation from the Buffalo faithful who might be starting a love affair with their newest Sabre. Bernier admitted that he didn’t get much sleep since arriving. “I didn’t sleep much last night. When I wake up this morning it was a long time to the seven o’clock start. All day long I was thinking about the game. Then I did not sleep this afternoon. It really went well and this is the way i wanted it to go.”

The Sabres homestand continues on Friday as Marion Hossa and the Montreal Canadiens come to town, and yes there are still tickets available for this gold priced game. Puck drops at 7:35PM.

Side notes -

-On the Sabres DL and listed as day to day is none other than Sabres PR Director Mike Gilbert, who was spotted in the clubhouse wearing a sling as he suffered a slight separated shoulder while playing hockey yesterday. The cast should come off in a couple days. “Will take a lot more than this to knock me out of the lineup” Gilbert quipped.

-About half of tonight’s high school hockey players watching Lindy’s postgame press conference from the back of the room were wearing mohawk hairstyles! I was chomping at the bit to hear what Rob Ray would have to say about all this, but Ray entered the room and was speechless, and that left me feeling empty.

-Soupy gets an assist tonight in the Sharks 4-2 win over Columbus. Wow, probably means his price just went up. Do I hear $50 million?

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