The Sabres staved off elimination and being swept when they held off the Ottawa Senators for a 3-2 win. This series is a carbon copy of last year's series between these two teams but only in reverse. Last year, the Sabres won the first two in Ottawa, won their first game at home before losing to the Sens 2-1 in Game 4.

"We felt that if we got one good break, one good period, then we could get into our game and play the way we want to play," said Sabres co-captain Chris Drury said. "We were out of synch and doing a lot of things that were costing us scoring chances against. It was no way to beat these guys."

The Senators fans all brought their brooms and were ready to pronounce the Sabres DOA. The Sabres rained down on their parade, just like the Sens did to the Buffalo fans a year ago.

Thursday night, the Sabres struck early, with Derek Roy blocking a Senators advance out of their zone, getting the puck to Chris Drury. Drury's shot was then deflected by Roy over Ray Emery just 9 seconds into the game and the Sabres had the shot of adrenalin they needed.

“It’s just huge, especially not scoring the whole game last game,” described Roy. “Coming out the first shift and scoring nine seconds into play, it just lifted the whole spirit of the team.”

The Sabres were skating hard and played their best period of the series.Buffalo got their first powerplay goal of the series, a 5-on-3 tally by Maxim Afinogenov to up it to 2-0 in the second. Drury got a shot past Emery on the far side to give the Sabres a commanding 3-0 lead 8 minutes into the second stanza. However, the Sabres had to hold on for dear life after Ottawa finally cracked Miller's shutout attempt at the 14:55 mark when Dean McAmmond blasted the rubber past the Sabres goalie.

The Sens crowd woke up and that sparked the Senators to stage a flurry of assaults around the Sabres cage. It was relentless action and the Sabres were unable to clear. Peter Schaefer scored less than 2 minutes later and the Senators were finally rolling. The Sens were buzzing all over Miler like a bunch of angry bees

It appeared as if the Sens were going to score 3 more goals in the period the way they were swarming around Miller, but the Sabres goalie was able to prevent any more pucks from getting into the net. In the third period, it was Miller saving the day again, playing his best hockey of the playoffs. Miller made 31 saves and was named the first star. He will need to step it up again Saturday when the series comes back to Buffalo for a 2 PM start.

Drury was business as usual on the ice and in the locker room after the game.

"Everybody understood what we were up against." Drury said after the game. Then he talked about how the Sabres decided to have some fun the day before and have players take turns tending goal, including himself. "It relaxed us. At some point, I don’t know when it was, but some weight was lifted off our shoulders. It was as loose as we had been in a while."

The Sabres must take it one game at a time, think of every game as a 1-game series, and forget that they are in such a big hole. Coming back to win a series after being down 3-0 has happened only twice in NHL history. The 1942 Maple Leafs did it as did the 1975 New York Islanders. The Sabres have been making miracle comebacks all season, could they have their biggest magical comeback left?

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