The City of Buffalo and WNY had gone into a Sabres frenzy. It was like 1999 all over again. A pregame party was planned with the overflow crowd invited to go to Dunn Tire Park to watch the game on that stadium’s jumbotron. Everyone was in a festive mood except the Senators, who crashed the party and were big time party poopers.

The Senators burst the Sabres bubble and the hearts of the almost 19,000 at the game and millions more watching on TV. This was not what the partying fans had in mind..

By beating the Sabres 2-1, the Senators forced a Game 5 and rekindled some hope that they could be the third team in NHL history to come back from a 0-3 deficit.

The Sabres failed to show up for the party for two of the three periods. The came out and were outworked, out-hit and outshot for most of the game by the desperate Sens.

The fans were up in arms by what they felt was atrocious officiating by the refs Thursday. They were protesting the many infractions that the Senators committed that were let go while at the same time the Sabres were tagged for borderline transgressions.

Kerry Fraser was not the reason the Sabres lost Thursday night. He may have gotten an assist on the winning goal, but the Sabres have to only took at themselves to see who is to blame.

The fans were chanting "Fraser Sucks" when he called several dubious penalties against the Sabres and then failed to whistle the Sens numerous times throughout the game.

Buffalo once again came out complacent. When they have felt overconfident and patted themselves on the backs this season for a job well done, they come out flat and usually lose. Such was the case in Game 4. The Senators scored two goals from long shots and the Sabres could only manage one against Ray Emery. End of story.

Daniel Briere did a nice wraparound to prevent Emery from shutting out Buffalo, but that’s all they could manage.

"They're a tough team to beat and you don't expect to beat them in four games," Ales Kotalik said after the game. "He (the goalie) was definitely better than the games before."

Said Emery of his performance, "I was motivated by the fact I wasn't happy with my play in the series. I felt accountable to the guys. You see how bad the guys want to win and you definitely don't want to be the reason we don't win."

The Sabres have overcome similar adversity during the year, but they didn't have any spark, and of the aggressive play in front of the net that resulted in 3 straight wins against the Senators.

Now they must go back to Ottawa and prevent the series from coming back to Buffalo for a 6th game. They could have ended it once and for all if they had played with the same intensity that won them their first three. But contentment once again crept in and prevented them from finishing the job.

"They came out extremely hard," said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. "(Not sure) whether we expected them to lay down. I didn't think we really started to pay the price until the start of the second period, when we really went after them."

GAME 2

Game 2 on Monday was more like Stanley Cup playoff style of hockey after that 7-6 game on Saturday. It had all the elements of old time Stanley Cup action...close checking, great goaltending, hard hitting. The Sabres won 2-1 and took the first two games in Ottawa in a series that some predicted they would be swept by Ottawa.

Some fans think they would rather have lost game 2 of the series than losing Tim Connolly. Connolly what hit by a brick wall when he skated cross ice and into the forearm of Peter Schaefer. The hit was termed "clean" by Lindy Ruff and if he says that, then you have to respect his opinion. He would be the first one to demand a suspension if the hit was dirty.

The Sabres did play the opposite kind of a game than they had in Game One. That was a race to the finish. This one was more like the brand of hockey that Ruff instilled in his teams before the NHL opened up the ice with the new rules. By beating Ottawa 2-1, the Sabres take a commanding 2-0 lead in the series.

Jochen Hecht got back into the lineup, only to see three of his comrades fall to injury. Tim Connolly was knocked out cold. Paul Gaustat also received a concussion. Defenseman Dmitri Kalinin broke his ankle and may miss the rest of the post season .

GAME 3

The Sabres beat the Ottawa Senators 3-2 in overtime on JP Dumont's knuckleball shot that got past Ray Emery to give the Sabres a commanding 3 games to none lead.

The Sens were fighting all night to get back into the game and it took two 2-man advantages to get their goals. Actually, the second one was with a Sabre in the Box and Emery off in favor of the extra attacker, but the Sabres defense played another stellar game and Ryan Miller stonewalled the Sens once again.

JP Dumont delivered a knuckleball and Ray Emery swung and missed! No, it wasn't a baseball game, but Game 3 of the second round matchup between the Sabres and Senators. By delivering up a wobbling, fluttering pitch, Dumont seemed to deliver the knockout pitch in the series.

"The puck was still bouncing when I shot it and it went in a funny direction," described Dumont.

"It was a Tim Wakefield shot. It's not how you do it. All that matters is that it's in the net."

With the shock of going down 3 games to none, the Senators know how Chris Daughtry of American Idol felt when he was voted off Wednesday night. They didn't see this coming! They were blindsided. Now one in his right mind would have predicted the Buffalo Sabres to win the first 3 games of this series.

Chris Drury scored a powerplay goal in the first period to continue the streak that had seen the Sabres score the first goal in their first seven playoff games. That streak came to a screeching halt Thursday when the Sens broke through and scored first.

The Sabres did not sweep the Senators. But it is only one game and the Sabres have a tendency of becoming complacent when they have won a few big games. It happened in Philly when they won the first two against the Flyers and then lost two straight there. The Sabres then went out and played their best two games of the season, beating the Flyers 3-0 and 7-1 to eliminate them.

The Sabres found out that the Ottawa Senators do have some life in them. In order to prevent the game from going 6 games, they have to get back to playing desperation hockey.

People were wondering if the Senators can become the first team since the 1975 NY Islanders to win 4 straight after going behind the 3 games to none 8 ball? Now they have taken the first step towards that miraculous process by winning Game 4. They only have to win the next three, starting Saturday night in Ottawa.

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