Vs.
While Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller continues to gain attention in the wake of his outstanding performance in the Olympics, Marty Turco turned in a spectacular one of his own for the Dallas Stars his last time out.
The netminders will be in the spotlight Wednesday night when Miller's Sabres look to defeat the Stars and Turco for the fifth straight time.
Buffalo (35-20-9) won 2-1 in overtime on the road against the Rangers on Sunday as Miller made 35 saves. Miller stayed in Manhattan on Monday to do a media tour, taking advantage of his newfound fame after leading the United States to a silver medal in the Olympics.
"It's important for hockey," Miller told the Sabres' official Web site. "If people are interested in me, it's my job to be available."
Turco was enduring a different kind of season in which he struggled at times and was the subject of trade rumors, with Dallas (29-24-12) seemingly ready to end his nine-year tenure with the club. The 33-year-old Turco, in the last year of his contract, survived the trade deadline and is trying to help the Stars reach the playoffs.
Dallas rode Turco to a 4-3 shootout win at Washington on Monday. He made a career-high 49 saves as the Stars ended a three-game slide.
"It's not going to be every night that your goalie's going to wear a mask and steal a game for you," coach Marc Crawford said. "We needed a great goaltending performance tonight, and Marty was absolutely terrific. We love the fact that he fought and fought and fought and fought - and got a payoff."
Turco was pulled early in the second period Thursday after giving up four goals on 11 shots in a 6-1 home loss to St. Louis. Kari Lehtonen started the next game for the Stars, surrendering all six goals in a 6-3 loss at Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Crawford appears ready to stick with Turco, who faced 42 shots through two periods Monday as the Stars rallied from a 2-0 deficit heading into the third.
"Hopefully this group is good and smart enough to realize how big this was, to come back like that against this team that we can use it so now we can not only play with anybody, but we can win," Turco said. "We got another tough one again on this road trip with Buffalo."
The Stars are 0-3-1 in their last four against the Sabres. Turco has been charged with all four losses, posting a 3.78 goals-against average.
Miller has started the last two matchups opposite Turco and has a 2.41 GAA. He's 7-3-1 with a 2.14 GAA in his last 11 home starts.
The Sabres are looking for some offense to support Miller, having scored three or fewer goals in 10 straight. Top goal scorer Thomas Vanek has scored twice in that span and Tim Connolly once.
Brad Richards had a goal and an assist Monday for Dallas, giving him 12 points in his last 10 games.
Looks to be a good matchup, or very boring. Both of these teams have been riding their goalies it seems all season long, especially lately for both. This game looks to be another matchup of goaltenders, and whichever one decides to give up less will win. The last time these two teams met the Sabres had to overcome a 3 goal deficit to force the game to overtime and won it in a shootout on January 15th, 2009.
