Move over, Toronto.
The game last night was the most epic one seen at HSBC Arena since the Carolina Hurricanes were defeated by our Sabres in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals last year. Sitting over four hours away by car, my neck prickled from the energy transferred through the TV by play by play Godsend Rick Jeanneret and the electrifying Buffalo fans.
Ottawa, led by Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley, scored two goals in the first fifteen minutes as Ottawa pounded Buffalo with shots. Alfredsson scored the first on an easy rebound on the powerplay, and Dany Heatley snapped a shot on a two on one break above Biron's glove. It looked like depleted Buffalo was going to suffer a pretty nasty defeat...that is until Captain Clutch came through. Chris Drury converted a third chance rebound up and above Ray Emery's glove after Mike Ryan failed to slam it home.
The period ended with the score 2-1, but Buffalo seemed to be gaining some momentum. Wow, that was an understatement. Buffalo came out of the locker room with nothing but a win on it's mind, and Thomas Vanek scored two goals less than a minute apart to give Buffalo a 3-2 lead. Vanek played the best game of his stellar year, making two brilliant sneaky plays. The first, Vanek came across the rink from Emery's left and just as Jason Pominville let a montrous shot rip from the point, Vanek crossed the crease and redirected the puck over Emery's blocker.
Forty seconds later, as Vanek was on the right of Emery this time, he cut to about center ice and stole the puck from the Senators at their blue line and skated in on a breakaway. Vanek double deked and Emery bit as Vanek shoveled the backhand over Emery's leg pad and outside his blocker.
At this point in the game, HSBC is rocking. Anyone at this game is as tired as the players are from the emotions they had been experiencing. But it wasn't over yet, not even near.
Just over five minutes in, eighty seconds after Vanek's second goal, Buffalo was on a rush again.
Emery made a couple good saves, and the puck was on it's way out of the offensive zone. Drury made a big steal and started in on a rush with rookies Mike Ryan and Drew Stafford. Drury moved in against Tom Preissing and Wade Redden. Drury pushed a shot wide and it went into the corner. Senators tough guy Chris Neil took another stride and hit Drury through the back of his shoulder and finished through the head. As he finished his check he extended his arm and used extra force to launch the Buffalo star into the air, sending his helmet into orbit.
Drury completed a half a flip and smashed his forehead hard into the ice. He fell over and was spurting blood in the ice before collapsing. Drew Stafford turned and saw his Captain on the ice and the rookie charged and went at the bigger, stronger Neil with everything he could muster. The officials separated them and they both recieved fighting majors, but Neil was not given interference or a charging penalty for blindsiding Drury.
Sens coach Bryan Murray, a recent 600 game winner (accomplished by only five coaches in history) then made what can be called a rookie mistake. After a play like the Drury hit, away, on the opponent's captain, the most foolish thing you can do is send out your skill line, and that's what Murray did. Lindy Ruff responded by sending out the Buffalo Bash line, Adam Mair, Andrew Peters, and called up tough guy and Buffalo native Patrick Koleta. As soon as Koleta stepped on the ice, even before the faceoff, Heatley cross checked him for no reason.
As soon as the puck dropped, Center Adam Mair went at Spezza, Peters ripped Heatley around by his face, and Koleta went at whoever he could find. Three other Senators went after Mair and tried to get him off Spezza. Heatley hid his tail between his legs and ran away, and no one wanted a part of Peters. Eventually all ten position players found a partner and scuffled. At this point Martin Biron called Ray Emery out of net and the goalies had themselves a little tango.
The much smaller Biron basically got his butt handed to him, but it didn't matter, because the fire and drive was there. When Peters saw Emery on Biron, he decided to finish the job. Emery and Peters was actually a fair fight--Emery is that big.
The most exciting part of the the brawl wasn't even the players fighting. Coach Bryan Murray stood on the side of the boards screaming across Rob Ray in the press box to Lindy Ruff. Ruff did not shy from this challenge. He jumped in the press box and proceded to yell obscenities back at Murray. My personal favorite was "Don't go after our f****** Captain!".
Peters, Emery, and Biron were all ejected from the game. Enter Ryan Miller for the Sabres and Martin Gerber for the Senators.
The video can be viewed here.
Eventually the mess was cleared and 100 minutes of penalties were dolled out, unfortunately, Buffalo got 63 of them. When play resumed, Buffalo had to kill a five on three penalty, and then the second half of a double minor on top of that. Why Ottawa did not recieve a third man in penalty, offsetting one of Buffalo's, is beyond me. Ottawa had three men, not two, fighting Mair, as clearly shown in the video.
Tony Lydman was the main reason Ottawa didn't score on the five on three. He had numerous huge defensive plays and really saved the Sabres backside. Getting away with only giving one goal up on the four minute, three man powerplay was a steal. Danny Heatley connected one minute into the last penalty, and Ottawa tied the game with twelve minutes to play in the second.
With two minutes left in the second, and the hits building, Brian Campbell fed a two line pass up the gut to Patrick Koleta. Koleta dropped the pass to Clarke MacArthur, and the fired a shot on Gerber, who didn't see it, gave a rebound, and MacArthur still on the charge poked the puck in the net with a defender riding his back.
With seconds left in the second, Daniel Briere recieved a feed from the point and looked poised to slam it home and give the Sabres a commanding 5-3 lead, but was hooked very violently and the Sabres ended the second on the powerplay.
The second period intermission was highlighted by Razor Rob Ray's interview of Mike Ryan. Ray asked Ryan about the fight and Ryan simply stated that "if they're going to take liberties on our best players, then stuff like that will happen". This, to me, was huge from a rookie. The young forward showed he was not scared or intimidated.
The third period was full of energy. Vanek almost completed the hat trick on the continuing penalty three or four times. Shortly after the penalty was killed, Derek Roy crushed Dany Heatley and Spezza let Roy know he was having none of that. Unfortunately, the refs were blowing their whistles at anything, knowing full well another brawl could come out of anything. Roy pushed back and they both were issued penalties.
On the ensuing four on four, Dmitri Kalinin, Daniel Briere, and Jason Pominville moved in on a three on two, and after two quick passes, Kalinin ripped a shot on Gerber that somehow the goalie stopped, but gave a rebound. Kalinin followed his shot, picked up his rebound, waited for Gerber to commit, and made Briere blush with a shot to the top of the net.
Buffalo, now up 5-3, did not change their game at all. They battled and battled, but Mike Fisher connected on a lucky shot that Miller couldn't see at the eleven minute mark. Less than a minute later, Briere and his mates had two or three golden opporunities foiled by Gerber and the Ottawa defense.
Miller may have saved the game when he robbed Dany Heatley absolutely silly on a one time four feet from the net.
On a late rush, Brian Cambpell was completing his trademark spin-o-rama deke and was hooked by Chris Kelly. Ottawa killed the penalty efficiently, but with fifty second remaining, Henrik Tallinder put a shot on net that hit the top corner of the crossbar. Gerber was beaten- badly- but unluckily Buffalo was left with a tie still.
In overtime, the team traded rushes for the first minute. Near the four minute mark, Thomas Vanek recieved a pass and crossed the blue line. Heatley ripped the skates out from under Vanek and received no penalty, for some reason. On the ensuing Senators rush, Briere tapped Alfredsson's jersey with his stick and somehow was called for hooking.
Buffalo played the last 1:32 of overtime shorthanded, and again, the defense, led by Tony Lydman, killed every second of that penalty, only allowing one of two quality shots by the high powered Senators. Both shots were by Heatley, and Miller was not going to let Heatley win the game in HSBC.
Then comes the shootout. Lindy Ruff picked his normal first shooter, Briere. Vanek, who almost always takes the second round most certainly would again on his hot night. Jason Pominville, Buffalo's biggest sniper after the injured players picked up the third slot.
Bryan Murray sent out Antoine Vermette, Dean McAmmond, and Mike Comrie. Many NHL analysts are still questioning Murray for leaving players like Alfredsson, Heatley, Spezza, and Schaefer.
Miller and Gerber both stopped the first three shots they faced. In the first round of sudden death, Buffalo sent out Drew Stafford, right. The rookie converted with a backhand shovel up high and put enormous pressure on Ottawa's fourth shooter - and last chance- Mike Fisher. Fisher set up and skated it and HSBC was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Not for long. Fisher took a wrister from twenty feet and Miller snagged it in his glove and I think they had to do repairs to HSBC from the noise that ensued.
Who says these Rochalo Saberks aren't gusty enough to win?
My three stars:
1. THE ENTIRE BUFFALO SABRES ROSTER. I'm not going to explain why. It's the 1200 words directly above.
2. Drew Stafford. Sticking up for his captain, played good defense with more ice time than he's used to, and winning the game in the shootout.
3. Thomas Vanek. Turned people inside out and backchecked better than he ever has. Got better as the game went on. If it wasn't for the cheatin' Sens, Vanek could have easily had four goals.
And here's the best part.
The teams square off in Ottawa at seven tonight.
The game last night was the most epic one seen at HSBC Arena since the Carolina Hurricanes were defeated by our Sabres in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals last year. Sitting over four hours away by car, my neck prickled from the energy transferred through the TV by play by play Godsend Rick Jeanneret and the electrifying Buffalo fans.
Ottawa, led by Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley, scored two goals in the first fifteen minutes as Ottawa pounded Buffalo with shots. Alfredsson scored the first on an easy rebound on the powerplay, and Dany Heatley snapped a shot on a two on one break above Biron's glove. It looked like depleted Buffalo was going to suffer a pretty nasty defeat...that is until Captain Clutch came through. Chris Drury converted a third chance rebound up and above Ray Emery's glove after Mike Ryan failed to slam it home.
The period ended with the score 2-1, but Buffalo seemed to be gaining some momentum. Wow, that was an understatement. Buffalo came out of the locker room with nothing but a win on it's mind, and Thomas Vanek scored two goals less than a minute apart to give Buffalo a 3-2 lead. Vanek played the best game of his stellar year, making two brilliant sneaky plays. The first, Vanek came across the rink from Emery's left and just as Jason Pominville let a montrous shot rip from the point, Vanek crossed the crease and redirected the puck over Emery's blocker.
Forty seconds later, as Vanek was on the right of Emery this time, he cut to about center ice and stole the puck from the Senators at their blue line and skated in on a breakaway. Vanek double deked and Emery bit as Vanek shoveled the backhand over Emery's leg pad and outside his blocker.
At this point in the game, HSBC is rocking. Anyone at this game is as tired as the players are from the emotions they had been experiencing. But it wasn't over yet, not even near.
Just over five minutes in, eighty seconds after Vanek's second goal, Buffalo was on a rush again.
Emery made a couple good saves, and the puck was on it's way out of the offensive zone. Drury made a big steal and started in on a rush with rookies Mike Ryan and Drew Stafford. Drury moved in against Tom Preissing and Wade Redden. Drury pushed a shot wide and it went into the corner. Senators tough guy Chris Neil took another stride and hit Drury through the back of his shoulder and finished through the head. As he finished his check he extended his arm and used extra force to launch the Buffalo star into the air, sending his helmet into orbit.
Drury completed a half a flip and smashed his forehead hard into the ice. He fell over and was spurting blood in the ice before collapsing. Drew Stafford turned and saw his Captain on the ice and the rookie charged and went at the bigger, stronger Neil with everything he could muster. The officials separated them and they both recieved fighting majors, but Neil was not given interference or a charging penalty for blindsiding Drury.
Sens coach Bryan Murray, a recent 600 game winner (accomplished by only five coaches in history) then made what can be called a rookie mistake. After a play like the Drury hit, away, on the opponent's captain, the most foolish thing you can do is send out your skill line, and that's what Murray did. Lindy Ruff responded by sending out the Buffalo Bash line, Adam Mair, Andrew Peters, and called up tough guy and Buffalo native Patrick Koleta. As soon as Koleta stepped on the ice, even before the faceoff, Heatley cross checked him for no reason.
As soon as the puck dropped, Center Adam Mair went at Spezza, Peters ripped Heatley around by his face, and Koleta went at whoever he could find. Three other Senators went after Mair and tried to get him off Spezza. Heatley hid his tail between his legs and ran away, and no one wanted a part of Peters. Eventually all ten position players found a partner and scuffled. At this point Martin Biron called Ray Emery out of net and the goalies had themselves a little tango.
The much smaller Biron basically got his butt handed to him, but it didn't matter, because the fire and drive was there. When Peters saw Emery on Biron, he decided to finish the job. Emery and Peters was actually a fair fight--Emery is that big.
The most exciting part of the the brawl wasn't even the players fighting. Coach Bryan Murray stood on the side of the boards screaming across Rob Ray in the press box to Lindy Ruff. Ruff did not shy from this challenge. He jumped in the press box and proceded to yell obscenities back at Murray. My personal favorite was "Don't go after our f****** Captain!".
Peters, Emery, and Biron were all ejected from the game. Enter Ryan Miller for the Sabres and Martin Gerber for the Senators.
The video can be viewed here.
Eventually the mess was cleared and 100 minutes of penalties were dolled out, unfortunately, Buffalo got 63 of them. When play resumed, Buffalo had to kill a five on three penalty, and then the second half of a double minor on top of that. Why Ottawa did not recieve a third man in penalty, offsetting one of Buffalo's, is beyond me. Ottawa had three men, not two, fighting Mair, as clearly shown in the video.
Tony Lydman was the main reason Ottawa didn't score on the five on three. He had numerous huge defensive plays and really saved the Sabres backside. Getting away with only giving one goal up on the four minute, three man powerplay was a steal. Danny Heatley connected one minute into the last penalty, and Ottawa tied the game with twelve minutes to play in the second.
With two minutes left in the second, and the hits building, Brian Campbell fed a two line pass up the gut to Patrick Koleta. Koleta dropped the pass to Clarke MacArthur, and the fired a shot on Gerber, who didn't see it, gave a rebound, and MacArthur still on the charge poked the puck in the net with a defender riding his back.
With seconds left in the second, Daniel Briere recieved a feed from the point and looked poised to slam it home and give the Sabres a commanding 5-3 lead, but was hooked very violently and the Sabres ended the second on the powerplay.
The second period intermission was highlighted by Razor Rob Ray's interview of Mike Ryan. Ray asked Ryan about the fight and Ryan simply stated that "if they're going to take liberties on our best players, then stuff like that will happen". This, to me, was huge from a rookie. The young forward showed he was not scared or intimidated.
The third period was full of energy. Vanek almost completed the hat trick on the continuing penalty three or four times. Shortly after the penalty was killed, Derek Roy crushed Dany Heatley and Spezza let Roy know he was having none of that. Unfortunately, the refs were blowing their whistles at anything, knowing full well another brawl could come out of anything. Roy pushed back and they both were issued penalties.
On the ensuing four on four, Dmitri Kalinin, Daniel Briere, and Jason Pominville moved in on a three on two, and after two quick passes, Kalinin ripped a shot on Gerber that somehow the goalie stopped, but gave a rebound. Kalinin followed his shot, picked up his rebound, waited for Gerber to commit, and made Briere blush with a shot to the top of the net.
Buffalo, now up 5-3, did not change their game at all. They battled and battled, but Mike Fisher connected on a lucky shot that Miller couldn't see at the eleven minute mark. Less than a minute later, Briere and his mates had two or three golden opporunities foiled by Gerber and the Ottawa defense.
Miller may have saved the game when he robbed Dany Heatley absolutely silly on a one time four feet from the net.
On a late rush, Brian Cambpell was completing his trademark spin-o-rama deke and was hooked by Chris Kelly. Ottawa killed the penalty efficiently, but with fifty second remaining, Henrik Tallinder put a shot on net that hit the top corner of the crossbar. Gerber was beaten- badly- but unluckily Buffalo was left with a tie still.
In overtime, the team traded rushes for the first minute. Near the four minute mark, Thomas Vanek recieved a pass and crossed the blue line. Heatley ripped the skates out from under Vanek and received no penalty, for some reason. On the ensuing Senators rush, Briere tapped Alfredsson's jersey with his stick and somehow was called for hooking.
Buffalo played the last 1:32 of overtime shorthanded, and again, the defense, led by Tony Lydman, killed every second of that penalty, only allowing one of two quality shots by the high powered Senators. Both shots were by Heatley, and Miller was not going to let Heatley win the game in HSBC.
Then comes the shootout. Lindy Ruff picked his normal first shooter, Briere. Vanek, who almost always takes the second round most certainly would again on his hot night. Jason Pominville, Buffalo's biggest sniper after the injured players picked up the third slot.
Bryan Murray sent out Antoine Vermette, Dean McAmmond, and Mike Comrie. Many NHL analysts are still questioning Murray for leaving players like Alfredsson, Heatley, Spezza, and Schaefer.
Miller and Gerber both stopped the first three shots they faced. In the first round of sudden death, Buffalo sent out Drew Stafford, right. The rookie converted with a backhand shovel up high and put enormous pressure on Ottawa's fourth shooter - and last chance- Mike Fisher. Fisher set up and skated it and HSBC was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Not for long. Fisher took a wrister from twenty feet and Miller snagged it in his glove and I think they had to do repairs to HSBC from the noise that ensued.
Who says these Rochalo Saberks aren't gusty enough to win?
My three stars:
1. THE ENTIRE BUFFALO SABRES ROSTER. I'm not going to explain why. It's the 1200 words directly above.
2. Drew Stafford. Sticking up for his captain, played good defense with more ice time than he's used to, and winning the game in the shootout.
3. Thomas Vanek. Turned people inside out and backchecked better than he ever has. Got better as the game went on. If it wasn't for the cheatin' Sens, Vanek could have easily had four goals.
And here's the best part.
The teams square off in Ottawa at seven tonight.
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