Greetings from warm and drizzly South Florida!

I’ve never live blogged during a game but thought tonight is as good a night as any to give it a try.

I drove 206 miles from I-drive in Orlando straight to the arena; I made the same journey last December and rolled into town into the teeth of rush hour traffic and the last 40 miles from West Palm Beach to Sunrise was murder. So this time I left an hour earlier, and there were no delays at all, and I got to the venue two hours beforehand. Credentials check in was no probs, grabbed the media chow, and now I got plenty of time to kill to the 7:35PM faceoff.

Pregame: The Sabres are reeling after three straight losses on the road, and the Panthers are riding a three game winning streak at home, so righting the ship is going to take some doing. While the event crew was doing the PA practice run, they announced that Thibault was getting the start in net tonight, but that is probably not right and Ryan Miller is expected to start. The other bit of news is that Jaroslav Spacek will not dress tonight, and that means that 19 year old prospect, 6-2, 205 lb Mike Weber will get his first NHL start tonight. He will wear #34. Dimitri Kalinin and Mike Ryan are the other scratches, so look for Andrew Peters on the ice.

First period: Josef Stumpel goes 5 hole on Ryan Miller and just like that it’s 1-0 Panthers. In case you didn’t hear too much cheering it’s because this building is half empty on a Friday night. Disgraceful.

7:53 - Ales Kotalik’s one timer on a two man advantage just tied the score 1-1. Judging from crowd noise I’d say about 500 Buffalo partisans in the house.

12:00 - During the media timeout the “Panther Girl” cheerleaders gathered in each end zone along with the mascots do do this jump dance routine. How come you never see cheerleaders clad in skimpy outfits in Montreal?

end 1 - Buffalo has had a tough time clearing the zone for the most of this period and this time it cost them as Florida gets the late goal. 2-1 Florida end 1st.

Second Period

The pressbox up here is dead and empty, and I asked one of the regulars up here if it is always like this. Apparently the local pubs have their “B” team here tonight… most of the writers away with the Dolphins..something about some football game at Wembley Stadium on Sunday?

13:07 - Ugh.. Vaneks gets stoned on a breakaway

End 2nd - no scoring this period. Mike Weber is getting a lot of ice time out there.

Third Period

First minute and Buffalo gets a penalty. Not a good way to start. Gotta kill this one off!

5:57— They just did a video review of a stop Miller made where he got shoved in the net.. No Goal! Didn’t look even close.
Official attendance 15842… the Bisons’ Mike Baloney must be in the building counting.

8:25— The Sabres tie it! A nifty pass to Jochen Hecht just to the left of the net and he buries it. Can the Sabres keep the momentum going?

11:12— The puck went into the Florida net off the goalies back… Video review time. Looks like Stafford batted the puck down with his stick… IT COUNTS!!!! Sab 3 Fla 2

12:36— Media time out, kiss cam time, and Buf gies on the power play… An insurance goal here would be sweet.

12:36 pt 2 — Kiss cam just showed two dudes in the stands wearing Sabres jerseys. Guys did not oblige, audience laughs. Memo to South Florida: without homos your entire society down here would collapse.

17:00 — Danny Paille just gave the Sabres a 4-2 lead shorthanded and looked like a philthy maniac..Great hustle! 4-2 and the crowd is heading for the exits.

19:00 and change… Down to the final seconds. Great third period effort and a great win. See you tomorrow night from Tampa!

RSS 2.0 Respond Trackback