Lindy Ruff had predicted that the series would be a "A track meet." It certainly was a race to the finish Friday night in the Scotiabank Place before 20,000 stunned Senator fans.

The Sens and Sabres showed off their speed and quickness when there were a flurry of goals scored right at the start of periods and at the very end.

After outplaying the Sabres almost the entire game and manhandling the Sabres defense, the Senators most likely are beating themselves over their collective heads today for blowing four 1 goal leads. And to allow the Sabres to score twice in the last couple minutes of the third period to tie it twice was incredible.

Game One of the Sabres-Senators series has more than lived up to its high expectations. There has been no lack of offensive excitement. The Sabres, who had scored first in all 6 games against Philly, came out and got a goal just 35seconds into the game when Mike Grier got a great feed from Derek Roy.

But the Sens came back with lightning speed when they scored 2 goals only 15 seconds apart. Jason Spezza and Bryan Smolinski got two past Ryan Miller..."BANG, BANG", as Ken Hitchcock would say.

The Sabres came back ten minutes later when Teppo Numminen's long shot got through a screen and past Ray Emery to tie it up at 2.

In the second period, the Sens poured it on again, when Martin Havlat got a great pass from Christopher Schubert and broke in on Miller. Havlat deked Miller to his left and flipped it in.

The Sabres then started taking way too many penalties, but on their first one, Tim Connolly came down the left side after receiving a clearing pass from Paul Gaustad and snuck in on Emery, beating him in deep on the short side, tying it up.

Right after that, the Sabres took another penalty and were two men short when Dany Heatley took the third rebound off Miller and flipped it top shelf from the left side of Miller.

The period wasn't over and the Sabres knew they had to answer to stay in the game. With time ticking down towards the end of the second period, Derek Roy got a great pass out in front from Henrik Tallinder and tied it up once again with only 30 seconds remaining.

After 8 goals having been scored in two periods, some were wondering if the teams would settle down and play a defensive brand of hockey? Not on your life!

The fans were still getting back into their seats when Mike Fisher got a pass from Martin Havlat, wide open with a gaping net in front of him. It was now 5-4. That's the way it stayed until the wild finish of the third period. The Sabres took a penalty, as they had too many times during the game. But while short handed Tim Connolly once again broke down the left side and found Derek Roy charging the net. He had a barn to shoot at and the Sabres suddenly tied it. But the Sens weren't through. They scored on the power play right after that, making it 6-5 when Bryan Smolinski got great pass from Daniel Alfredsson and buried it.

The Sabres, with their goalie pulled, almost got scored on when the Senators got the puck and shot it down just wide of the net. The Sabres finally got control of the puck in their end and were able to come back and charge the net. With a wild scramble in front of Emery, Connolly batted it in to force overtime.

And then came the overtime and just like had been scripted in the first three periods, this one was over in mere seconds. Volchenkov could have been hung in the rafters for being the goat in this one, but there were plenty of others on both sides who could have hung their heads in shame. Both the Senators and Sabres defense looked like they had never played professional hockey as they were standing around letting the opposing forwards walk all over them. Both Miller and Emery were left at the mercy of gunslingers the entire game.

Hockey purists must have thought they were experiencing a horrific nightmare Friday night. This just isn't what NHL playoff hockey is all about, or so they would say. However, this is the new NHL and maybe this is just the beginning of goal-filled games in the playoff series between the Sabres and Senators.

Everyone predicted a wide open series. But hardly anyone ever dreamed it would be this wide open. It was gun-ho, defense to the wind game.

"I don't know if it's a wise thing to run and gun with them," Ruff cautioned. "We want to run with them, but I don't think we want to gun with them."

There was gnashing of teeth from the booth where John Muckler was standing. After Tim Connolly tied the game up and sent it to overtime with his scramble and roof shot with a mere 10.6 seconds on the clock, Muckler shouted something that would have embarrassed Ken Hitchcock. Good thing that there wasn't a mic in that booth. Then when Drury scored the game winner just 18 seconds into the overtime, you didn't have to be a lip reader to know exactly what the CBC cameras caught Muckler shouting.

Muckler, former GM and coach of the Sabres, certainly didn't want to start off the playoffs this way. He built this team with stars, both on offense and defense. At the start of the season, there was no stopping the Senators. Now, suddenly they seem to be having problems both on defense and in goal with Ray Emery.

Ryan Miller also didn't have a stellar game, but how can he defend three attackers getting in close and playing tic-tac-toe with the puck with his dazed defensemen not being able to cover their men. Two or three times Miller had to block shots 3 to 4 times in a row until finally a free roaming Senator was able to flip it over him. That's not Miller's responsibility, but the defensemen or even forwards jobs to clear the crease and help out their goalie.

Many are now saying that neither the Sabres nor the Sens have the goaltending to go all the way. I disagree. I feel that both teams will get back to basics in these next few days off and learn what they did wrong on defense. With defensive schemes designed to stop their opponent's strengths and defensemen willing to block shots and mow down intrusions into the zone, the next few games will be more like Stanley Cup playoffs that we have grown to love.

Miller seems to have put the experience behind him and is ready for Game Two on Monday.

"That was not the way I pictured it going, but it came down to zero-zero at the end," Miller said after the game. "It was crazy. We're happy to get a win. We definitely have to pay attention and tighten up in some areas."

His counterpart, Emery, is also raring to go in the next game and wants to prove that he can make the big save.

"I'm looking forward to the challenge," an upbeat Emery said. "I want to get back and prove to the guys that I'm going to be there for them."

Roy’s explosive homecoming

Derek Roy is the perfect image of the new era Sabre. He is only 5'-8" tall and weighs 188. Roy is a whole inch smaller that smurf Daniel Briere. But Roy was as tall as 6'-9" giant Zdeno Chara Friday night in his hometown of Ottawa. (Both Roy and Briere are listed at 1 inch higher than their actual height)

Roy had a 5 point night, including two huge goals. He set up the first goal my Mike Grier just 35 seconds into the contest. Roy's goal in the second period came with 30 seconds left to tie it at 4-4.

Roy also was big in the Sabres series-clinching game against the Flyers Tuesday in Philly.

Lastly, that overtime goal by Drury was definitely a gift from the hockey Gods. When Senators defenseman Volchenkov fanned on a pass out of his zone, turned 180 degrees to see where the puck went (under his skates) and by that time Mike Grier stole the puck and passed it off to a streaking Chris Drury on the left side. Drury made sure he would capitalize on this enormous break by blasting it past a befuddled Ray Emery on the short side.

It was bedlam on the ice for the Sabres congratulating each other in this comeback after comeback after comeback after comeback overtime victory.

There is obviously going to be different evaluations about the crazed Game One between the Sabres and Senators from the two sides of the border. On the Ottawa side, there will definitely be grief, anger and shock. On this side of the Peace Bridge, there is jubilation and also shock.

To see this game go back and forth like a roller coaster ride out of control must have had fans reaching for more beers or aspirins to prevent heart attacks.

The Sabres have to consider themselves very lucky. They were outplayed, outshot and only a couple lucky breaks, along with some fine offensive spurts near the end of the second and third periods, helped them stun a vastly superior team. The Senators had a chance to score into the empty net when the Sabres had pulled Miller in an attempt to tie the game for the second time in seconds, but they shot wide and had yet another chance to gain control in the Buffalo zone only to fail miserably. Also, Ryan Miller used his exterior goalie equipment several times in the game (goal posts and cross bars) to the Sabres benefit.

All told, it was still a great win for the Sabres, probably one of the most dramatic in team's history and they will take the win and run to the bank with it....Scotiabank Place that is for Monday's game.