The Sabres have staged at least 10 major comebacks this season. I was privileged to be at the first one this season, the home opener against the Montreal Canadiens. All season long, the Sabres have written the book on resiliency, not only making big comebacks in games, but surviving what normally would be crippling injuries to their top players. With as many as 9 starters out of the lineup at one time, the Sabres kept on calling up the reserves from Rochester, their AHL farm club. Every time, the kids would step in and the Sabres would not miss a beat, shades of the New England Patriots of the NFL.

Friday night, with around half the arena wearing the Blue & White Leafs colors, the Sabres put themselves in a 4-1 hole by not matching the intensity of the Leafs. The Leafs came into Buffalo and out of the gates with guns a blazing. They were hitting everything in sight, but Sabres goalie Ryan Miller was keeping the Sabres in the game. Buffalo tallied first when Thomas Vanek deflected a shot from the point during the powerplay and the Sabres were quickly up 1-0. However, the Leafs came at the Sabres and stormed their zone, peppering Miller with 21 shots on goal in the first period. Miller stood tall and kept everything out of the net until the Leafs were granted a 2-man advantage.

For some reason, the refs whistled Dainus Zubrus for interference when he merely tapped a Leaf on the shin with his stick. There were much more blatant infractions that were let go the rest of the game as the officials put their whistles in their pockets. The Leafs have gotten around 6 two man advantage situations in the 4 games in Buffalo. On almost every occasion, they have taken advantage of this by scoring. They did so this night and tied the game.

In the second period, the Leafs took the lead and continued to bully the Sabres. They were pounding the Blue & Gold into submission and the Sabres seemed to go into their shell for protection. In the third, the Leafs came out of the gates smoking. They scored two goals to take what seemed to be a commanding lead, 4-1. The last goal by Toronto seemed to inspire the Sabres as the referee interfered with Miller, leaving a wide open net for Boyd Devereaux

to score his second straight goal. Miller was ticked off that the goal counted and smashed his goalie stick against the glass, with Jason Pominville close to being impaled by the stick..

"Did I see it?" laughed Pominville about the projectile that came dangerously close. "I was right behind him. He almost killed me.".

Miller’s anger seemed to spark new life into the Sabres and they suddenly turned on their jets and bombarded Andrew Raycroft the way Miller had been most of the night.

"Sometimes it's just necessary to lose it all at once instead of slowly boiling over the top," said Miller about his stick-throwing incident. "I wanted to lose some frustration. I don't think I've ever done that at this level, but I needed to get rid of it so I could re-focus.''

Vanek started the incredible repartee with his second goal at 5:27 mark. Then Daniel Briere made it 4-3 four minutes later. Then 4 minutes later Jason Pominville tied the score at 4-4. It took only 20 seconds after that for red hot Drew Stafford to get the Sabres 5^th goal and game winner. From that point on, it was Miller who shutdown the Leafs from forcing overtime.

The Leafs had their fans who flocked over the Peace Bridge to support them, in a state of fandemonium by taking a huge 4-1 lead in the third period. Something sparked the Sabres out of their hibernation as they suddenly came to life and scored 4 straight goals to stage a historic come from behind victory.

The Sabres have been doing that all season, coming back from 2 or 3 goals to force overtime and a shootout. This time, the Sabres didn't need the extra stanzas to produce their magic.


The question is whether Sabres fans would sell this many tickets to Leafs fans if the two teams met in the playoffs? If so, it definitely would be a sellout by Sabres fans!

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