First the Rangers take two points from the Sabres on Saturday, tonight it would be the Sabres handing the hated Flyers two points on a night with plenty of drama on and off the ice.

The season has been full of occasions where Buffalo has blown many one or two goal leads only to wind up on the short end of things when the buzzer sounded. Tonight they found a way to take things one step further and choke away a three goal lead to fall to the Flyers 4-3 in shootout.

And take a wild guess who provided the game winning goal in said shootout..strong hint-see the title of this post.

Buffalo got off on the right foot with a pair of goals coming just eleven seconds apart in the first period. First Derek Roy, then Clarke MacArthur in quick succession to send the arena into a frenzy. And when Jason Pominville made it 3-0 at the 14:16 mark of the 1st it appeared that the Sabres would be the next club to add to the Flyers losing streak. Maybe the Sabres were thinking this as well. They certainly started to play like this soon after.

Jeff Carter struck just moments later to get the Flyers on the board, and a second goal by Scott Hartnell later in the first stanza would close the gap further.Both the Sabres and Flyers failed to connect on multiple power plays during the second period, and for a time it seemed as if the 3-2 score may hold. Then came that darned over the glass delay of game penalty on Pominville. A penalty call that has bitten the Sabres many times over in the past and tonight would be no different as R. J. Umberger lit the lamp to tie the game at three.

The irony of it all, the man whose career has been defined by a hit from Brian Campbell ties a game that could, and probably is Soupy’s final game in a Sabres uni. But the irony would get even more sickening later on.

After a scoreless overtime the game made its way to a shootout. With the Flyers shooting second the score was even at one heading into the deciding round. Derek Roy barely got off a shot on Marty Biron, and coming into the game for the Flyers would be one Daniel Briere.One sprint up the ice followed by a fake of Ryan Miller and Briere’s shot landed safely in the net and the victory was complete. Umberger’s goal, Briere’s game winner, Biron outdueling Miller. It was tough to watch.

It was despondent to say the least aftward in the Sabres locker room. Lindy took far longer than normal to get to the podium and had a very quick conference. He didn’t say anything about overconfidence or anything of the type but did note that “we made some very casual plays” after going up 3-0 and basically “let them back in the game”.

Before leaving for the night the media got to talk with Campbell…..my personal thoughts after seeing him are that this guy is certain to be gone tomorrow. Yet seeing him answer questions I got the feeling that he really didn’t know particulars, i.e. where he’d be going to. When asked about Buffalo he talked by and large in past tense, yet wouldn’t rule anything out and certainly appeared as if he didn’t want to go anywhere. “I’ve grown up here and it’s been a lot of fun…..had a lot of ups and downs here and the fans have been great……I try not to think about it(his contract situation much….”.

Another one out the door, the dismantling of a once great team continues…

Useless stats:The Sabres blew a three goal lead and lost for the first time in nearly four years. The last time being a 6-5(OT) loss to the Maple Leafs on 3/15/04.

The win was the first via shootout in five tries for the Flyers. For the Sabres it would be their eighth shootout loss in ten attempts. All time the Sabres are 17-17 in the shootout format.

The game winning shootout goal by Briere was his first successful shootout attempt all season. It was his fifth attempt thus far.

RSS 2.0 Respond Trackback