Rangers stick it to the Sabres
By Rick Anderson
November 11, 2001
If the Sabres could have only taken two of those goals they scored against Atlanta on Thursday and applied it against the Rangers, then it would have been a much different game.
The Rangers seem to have finally gotten it all together this year after years of sinking good money on high priced players. The past few weeks, the Rangers have not only gotten their scoring act together, but their defense is shoring up also. In beating the Sabres for the second straight time, the Rangers are starting to dominate the Buffalo.
While outshooting the Rangers 11-5 in the first period, the Sabres failed to capitalize on any of their chances and went to the locker room down 1-0 on a goal by Andres Johansson.
"I thought we dominated the period, really," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff tried to convince the media in his post game conference. "We only gave them one chance to score on and they scored on it. When we get opportunities to get teams down, like in the past, we didn't get them down."
New York took a 2-0 lead on the Sabres and it appeared that Buffalo would pack it in right then. After Theo Fleury scored the Rangers' second goal, the Sabres scored two goals 67 seconds apart to tie it up in the middle of the second stanza.
Fleury's goal had just been announced over the PA system when the Sabres came down on a two-on-one towards18-year old rookie goalie Dan Blackburn. Miroslav Satan stormed in with defenseman James Patrick and Satan passed over to Patrick who hit the back of the net.
Sixty seven seconds later, the Sabres suddenly had a tie. Once again, Satan was involved in the scoring play, but this time he was the one lighting the lamp. Tim Connolly fed Satan going over the middle and Miroslav blasted it past the Rangers young goalie tying it up.
That is all she wrote as far as the Sabres offense was concerned. The Rangers then concentrated their offensive weapons toward Sabres goalie Martin Biron. Biron, who made 16 saves in the game, came up with mediocre performance against the Rangers.
Michael York put New York up for good with two straight goals to end any hope for the Sabres. The Flyers thought they had a goal before York scored, as Eric Lindros tipped a shot in midair past Biron, but Biron immediately protested to the officials that he felt the stick was a bit too high. Replays proved Biron right, but it wasn't too long after that York put on his show.
With Brian Campbell not being able to control the puck behind Biron, Fleury took possession of the puck and skated to the left of the Sabres goal. Fleury found York coming in and slipped a nifty pass to York, who slammed it home. That turned out to be the winning goal.
Right before the midway point of the third period, the Sabres were putting on the pressure in an attempt to tie the game. With Jason Woolley joining the attack, he lost control of the puck to Lindros, who teamed with York on a two-on-one into the Sabres zone. Lindros slipped a pass to York, who buried it into the net for the clincher.
Lindros and Vaclav Varada were battling it out all night. With 80 seconds left in the game and the Sabres attempting to at least get another goal to get back into the game, Varada clipped Lindros with the butt end of his stick in Lindros' left eye. Lindros took immediate exception to that and went after Varada, getting an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. That gave the Sabres a chance to pull Biron for a two man advantage. However, as in the rest of the game, Buffalo could not take advantage of a powerplay.
"How can they claim an accident on this one?" fumed Rangers coach Ron Low. "I saw 21/2 feet of stick come out and hit (Lindros) in the eye. If that's not a 10-game suspension I don't know what is. In fact, it should be more than that. That's just blatant intent to injure."
Ruff said that Lindros should stand up like a man and take his just punishment.
"Lindros has hit more guys across the head with his stick than Varada's ever hit," retorted Ruff .
"The big man took a dive. Varada's hand was already off his stick, and he hit him in the shoulder from the quick look I got at it. Tell the big man to stand up."
Varada, who has already served a one-game suspension to go along with two game misconducts, had his own version of the play.
"I play a physical game and he got cut," Varada described. "I don't know how. We were thinking of tying the game, and for me to take a penalty like that would not make sense. It was not intentional with two minutes to go."
"That guy is out to hurt people," said Brian Leetch about Varada.
"His No. 1 sole purpose to be out on the ice is to hurt somebody," chirped in Fleury. "And the refs allow him to do whatever he wants to do."
"Come on," Varada laughed. "I finish checks. Sometimes, other guys don't see me coming. But that's the way I was brought up to play."
One thing is for sure, Lindros has fooled a lot of experts who thought he should retire from the game instead of continuing to play the sport he loves after receiving several major concussions. Lindros appears to have regained all the prowess of his glory years with the Flyers and is helping shape the Rangers into a force to be reckoned with in April.
Lindros, who has recorded eight points in his last five games, has inspired the Rangers.
"Not only has he played better himself, but the team has played better along with him and put him in a position to do some of the things he's done over the last couple weeks," said Rangers captain Mark Messier.
"A couple of plays he made tonight were unbelievable," lauded Low. "That play to Yorkie was as good as I've seen from him. He was a force out there again."
Satan, who has been hot of late, cited inconsistency as the reason for the loss.
"It was a roller coaster," Satan said. "We had shifts where we were working really hard, and we had shifts where we forgot a thing or two, and that cost us the game again. If you want to win in this league you have to have a consistent effort for 60 minutes. We had a couple holes in there."
"We know we have to rebound again," Satan continued. "We haven't been able to put a couple good games (together) to make any winning streaks yet. Ever since the beginning of the season it's been up and down, win and loss. We have to find a way to win again."
Ruff was asked if the team felt overconfident after scoring 8 goals on Atlanta 48 hours earlier.
"We didn't by any means judge our game against Atlanta and put it anywhere near what this game was going to be," answered Ruff. "We took Atlanta for what it was worth, a struggling team that came into our building, and we took advantage of them.
"We knew (the Rangers game) was going to be a lot tougher game, and I thought we came out with a great first period, and once again we didn't score, which hurts you. We let Blackburn make some big saves."
Biron, who made only 16 saves, played one of his more mediocre games.
"If we get the lead we're able to play our style and work them down low," Biron said. "We did that for the first eight minutes. If it wasn't for Blackburn for the first five or six minutes, we could have gotten away with a 1-0 or 2-0 lead. If we get the early lead it's a lot different playing against these guys."
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Wasted goals. That's what the Buffalo Sabres may be thinking what transpired in their last two games. On Thursday, the Sabres may have used up all their ammo when they trounced the Atlanta Thrashers 8-0. Saturday, they struggled to score just two as they lost to the New York Rangers 4-2.
Vaclav Varada goes flying through the air after being denied on a breakaway on Rangers 18-year old goalie Daniel Blackburn, who tripped him up after poke-checking the puck away. Rangers defenseman Bryan Berard comes in to help on the play.
[AP Photo/Don Heupel]
The high stick incident left both coaches spilling their wrath after the game with bitter comments.
Martin Biron stops Rangers right winger Radek Dvorak during first period action. Biron would only make 16 saves on 20 shots during the 4-2 loss to their downstate rivals.
[AP Photo/Don Heupel]
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