Buffalo 3, Ottawa 2
Guess who finally showed up at the big dance? Of course they were fashionably late. But when they got here, they didn’t waste any time in making a big splash. The Buffalo Sabres’ offense scored three goals and held off an Ottawa Senators’ comeback to win 3-2 and cut the deficit to 3-1 in the series.
Just 9 seconds in, Derek Roy scored the Buffalo Sabres’ first goal when right after the face-off, Andrej Meszaros’ clearing pass bounced off one of Roy’s skates and to Drury returned the puck to Roy for a tidy deflection into the top corner, past the glove side of Ottawa goaltender Ray Emery. “It’s one thing to get that opportunity,” said Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff, in praise of Roy. “It’s another to finish it.”Though they failed to generate much offence on three straight power play opportunities, the Senators came on through the first period, buzzing around Ryan Miller in the Buffalo net. Miller was very sharp, and very lucky, as two pucks dented the cross bar above him.
He stopped 10 shots during a 4:30 stretch when Ottawa enjoyed consecutive power-play chances. It’s a span when Miller produced his biggest save, waving his glove up to bat down Corvo’s snap shot from the slot.The feeling in the Buffalo room was that there wasn’t much to lose, down three-zip.
“It relaxed us,” said captain Chris Drury. “At some point, a load was lifted off our shoulders.” More cautious than they had been in their earlier games, Buffalo seemed content to play defense, especially after the Roy goal. Miller still had to face 33 shots, many from close range.
Buffalo then did something else shocking, a rare power-play goal, when Maxim Afinogenov scored during a two-man advantage 5 minutes into the second. It was the Sabres’ first power-play goal in 19 chances against Ottawa this series. Then at 8:06 of the second period, Chris Drury got into the act, with assists from Tim Connolly and Roy, scored a goal to make it 3-0. Emery allowed three goals on a total of 22 shots in the game.
But the Senators wouldn’t go quietly into the night. Typical of this playoff season, it was Ottawa’s fourth liners who caused a spark, late in the second period. Dean McAmmond, Chris Kelly and Antoine Vermette kept the puck inside the Sabres zone, creating a turnover that McAmmond converted with a wrist shot to the glove side. Miller’s spell was broken. Less than two minutes later, Peter Schaefer scored his first goal of the playoffs, off a blind centering pass from Mike Comrie.
Both teams had close calls in the third period, with the Sabres hitting a goalpost on a drifting Ales Kotalik shot, and Buffalo playing with matches on a couple of penalties.
Two penalties, back-to-back gave Ottawa the open door through which to get the trying goal but the Sabres’ penalty killers shut them down.
Closed the door. This night’s big dance was over and the Sabres finally were able to get on the dance floor and show what they got.
