It was quite a night for Buffalo Sabres captain Brian Gionta.  Before their game with the Florida Panthers the Sabres honored Gionta for playing in his 1,000th NHL game and with his wife and kids along with his mom and dad looking on the team presented him with a silver hockey stick and a piece of artwork depicting him during a game.

O nce he shook the emotions of the ceremony Gionta got down to the business of playing hockey and he ended up scoring what turned out to be the winning goal in a 4-2 Buffalo victory.  The rebound of Gionta's shot actually deflected into the net off of a Florida player, but you take them any way you can get them.

Jack Eichel finished with a pair of assists to give him 55 points in 55 games.  Ryan O'Reilly, Zach Bogosian and Marcus Foligno scored the other Buffalo goals.  Robin Lehner stopped 30 shots, but none of them was bigger than the penalty shot the Panthers were awarded in the third period that could have changed the outcome of the game.  For a guy who has yet to stop a shot in shoot outs this year, that was a huge save.

The Sabres scored two more power play goals to improve on their number one league ranking in that category.

The Sabres have only six more games left in the season.  They're on the road against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.

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