Early in the Rags game there were several defensive lapses leading to prime scoring chances and UPL blocked both the initial shot and the rebound. When a team plays a high pressure game (as the Sabres needed to in order to beat NYR), there will be defensive lapses and a goalie that stands tall definitely inspires confidence. It was a high risk/high reward style the Sabres played last night and they squeaked out a goal in each of the first two periods. There were 3-4 saves UPL made in those periods that you wouldn't fault the goalie for if they went in.
The Sabres seemed to improve as the game went on, and in the third period they outshot NYR 17-3 (!) but the first two periods were virtual dead heats, shots-wise, and one could say NYR had the higher danger chances in those first two.