Briere wins Game 1 in double overtime
By Rick Anderson
April 23, 2006

Daniel Briere gets the game-winner in overtime as he flips the puck past Flyers goalie Robert Esche in double overtime. The Sabres beat the Flyers 3-2.

[AP Photo/Don Heupel]

It was a game for the ages. This one had everything, giant hits, fights and outstanding goaltending and two overtimes before the Sabres finally finished off the Flyers 3-2. This game had "The hit," the "cheesy penalty" that allowed the Flyers to send it to overtime and then icing on the cake, the winning goal by Daniel Briere.

"The game had everything. Anybody that didn't get to see it might want to watch it," said a jubilant Lindy Ruff after the game.

Even though the fans wanted a quick exit and a Sabres regulation victory, they were treated to a wildly entertaining two periods of overtime. The hitting continued as did a number of shots that rang off posts behind both Esche and Miller. Brian Campbell delivered an earth-shattering open ice hit on R.J. Umberger, who was skating with his head down in the neutral zone. This hit had more force than any of Michael Peca's famous hit parade and rivaled the best of Scott Stevens onslaught of destruction through the years. It has to be rated as one of the most thundering hits in Sabres history.

Umberger had to be escorted off the ice after minutes of work by the Flyers trainer to get him to a point of consciousness where he could get to his feet. He was bleeding from the nose and clearly learned a lesson he will never forget.

"It was just the situation," Campbell explained. "It doesn't happen too often. I think he got a bad suicide pass and skated forward with his head down. It was a good, clean hit but it stinks that he got hurt. You never want to see that."

The Sabres were seeing apparitions Saturday night in their first playoff game in five years. Robert Esche did his best impression of Bernie Parent and had the Sabres shaking their heads all night as he stonewalled them time and time again.

Esche stood on his head the whole game, making 55 saves and kept the Flyers in the game, even though they were outshot 41-20 after 3 periods.

Esche was outstanding all night and the Sabres had a hard time scoring on him, but finally got one past him on a delayed penalty in the second overtime.

Two Flyers veterans knew that Esche’s game was special and prevented a Sabres blowout.

"He was spectacular," Petr Nedved lauded. "Obviously, he kept us in the game that long. He gave us every opportunity to win the game."

"No matter what kind of chance they got, he was able to get a piece of it and keep us in the game," Mike Knuble described. "As a player and bench, you have to feed off the fact he is on tonight and we better be on, too, and help him out. He was phenomenal tonight. If we can get that every night, we'll do well."

The Sabres completely dominated the Philadelphia Flyers, outshooting them 41-21 in regulation, but could only squeeze two pucks past him. With time winding down, the Sabres were victims of having the puck that Toni Lydman clear off the glass went over and into the crowd. Because of that misfortunate bounce, the Sabres drew a penalty with just over two minutes remaining. That was all the Flyers needed to send this game into overtime, to the distraught of a packed house at HSBC Arena.

As soon as the Sabres got penalized, a lot of fans were fearful that the Flyers were going to score and that indeed happened when Simon Gagne got it past Sabres goalie Ryan Miller with only 1:51 left in regulation. The Sabres dominated the entire game only to have a cheesy call such as an unfortunate flip of the puck deny them a well deserved victory.

Finally, Briere was able to win this game at the 7:31 mark of the second OT after he took a perfect saucer pass from Jochen Hecht and flipped it past Esche's pad into the far corner, sending the packed house into bedlam.

Briere thought he was shooting at a brick wall. All his shots were hitting something as solid as brick and wouldn't penetrate the goal. Finally, his 14th shot on Esche hit its mark...the back of the net and the Sabres ended this drawn out affair of hit and be hit.

The Flyers are a team that will be heard from during this playoff series. That's one thing that can be counted on. They already have goaltending that rivals the best in franchise history. Robert Esche looked a lot like a bigger Bernie Parent when he faced 58 shots, stopping 55 of them.

The Flyers are a big, physical team and can wear any team down. The question is whether the Sabres youth and speed will wear the Flyers down in the end. I predicted this series would go 7, with Buffalo coming out on top. I will stick by that prediction, especially after almost 5 periods of grueling hockey in game 1.

"I think we'll be fine," Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It took us a period and a half to get up to the speed of the game. Once we got up to the pace of the game, we were fine. We were much better in the second half of the game.

"We need to get more players up to speed, though. We have to make some decisions on personnel - how we want to play - and then we've got to get ourselves up to speed quicker in the game."

The Sabres hope they can find a weakness in Esche's armor, similar to how they finally solved Roman Chechmanek five years ago. Chechmanek had the Sabres number and Dominik Hasek discovered a soft spot, up high that the Sabres took advantage of. Now Esche's weakness may be harder to find as he had all the angles covered Saturday night in the 3-2 overtime loss to the Sabres.

"I felt like I was in a zone, but you never feel good when you give up one more," Esche said.

I compare this Sabres team to the 1978-79 New York Islanders when they were just about to become of the greatest NHL dynasties of all time. The Isles were young and a just a couple years removed from being an expansion team. They had the ingredients that would carry them to four straight Stanley Cups.

This Sabres team is young, inexperienced and is starting to feel its oats. They have a lot of learning to do, but in the years to come, they could be a dominant force in the new NHL.

If the first game is any indication, the Sabres series with the Flyers will resemble the 1975 SCF series more than the new-look NHL. With the kind of hitting and fights that took place on Saturday night in Buffalo, there is certainly going to be no love lost in the upcoming contests.

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