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Roy's 2 goals lead Sabres past Senators

Oct 9, 2010 - 4:35 AM OTTAWA (AP) -- Derek Roy and the Buffalo Sabres were delighted to get their regular season under way with a tight road win at the expense of a Northeast Division rival.

Roy scored his second goal of the game on a power play midway through the third period to send Buffalo on to a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Friday night in the season opener for both teams.

Ryan Miller stopped 25 shots for Buffalo, which took its second and final lead 10:12 into the third when Roy's shot from behind the goal line went in off goalie Pascal Leclaire.

"Yeah, it's more satisfying to get the two points and deny them a point, a divisional opponent," Roy said. "We wanted to come out and make a statement, come out real strong, and I thought we did that. We missed a few chances in the first period but at the end of the night we got the win and I think everyone in here is happy."

Sabres rookie Tyler Ennis assisted on both of Roy's goals.

"He's a great player," Ennis said. "As long as I can get it in his hands there's always a chance to score, and that's what happened."

Chris Kelly scored the Senators' goal late in the second. Leclaire made 34 saves.

"We were flat," Ottawa coach Cory Clouston said. "We didn't come out with the jump we needed, whether it was a little bit too high and trying to get too fancy at times. It wasn't until the third period that we really started playing more of our game and fell just short. We basically gave away the whole second period."

Roy put Buffalo up 1-0 8:04 in. He got behind Ottawa defenseman Erik Karlsson to take Ennis' pass on the left side before cutting across the goal mouth and past Chris Phillips to put a backhand over a sprawled Leclaire.

"I saw (Phillips) coming across really hard," Roy said. "He was skating backward so I figured I'd put it underneath his stick and go backhand."

Kelly tied it at 1 late in the second period. Chris Neil won a battle for the puck with Buffalo defenseman Jordan Leopold in the neutral zone and fed it ahead to Jarkko Ruutu. Kelly redirected Ruutu's centering pass from the right side into a wide open net with 48.2 seconds remaining in the middle period.

The Sabres killed off two late penalties - including a slashing call on Mike Grier with 21 seconds remaining - as the Senators went 0 for 5 on the power play.

"They've got some great players on that power play," Miller said. "They had some looks but we pushed them and made it a little harder on them."

Jason Spezza, Ottawa's No. 1 center, did not dress because of a groin injury. He is day-to-day.

NOTES: Dr. Don Chow, Ottawa's team physician, attended the game six weeks after he was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. Chow stood and waved to the crowd to acknowledge their cheers when he was introduced during the first period. ... The Sabres wore their new road uniforms, which include a modernized version of the white jersey worn by the team from 1970-71 to 1995-96 featuring the original team logo.