Sabres give Devils their due
By Rick Anderson
April 6, 2000
The Buffalo Sabres blasted the New Jersey Devils back into the marshes Thursday night as they embarrassed them 5-0 in Continental Airlines Arena. With probably the toughest schedule of any NHL team in the final week, the Sabres are definitely getting playoff ready by playing and beating the best the league can throw at them.
The Canadiens, by winning, keep pace with the Sabres and both are tied for the final playoff seed with 83 points. Carolina is still in the running with 80 points with two games remaining against the expansion Atlanta Thrashers. Buffalo has two games left while Montreal has only one remaining, Sunday against Ottawa. If Montreal and Buffalo tie for the 8th spot at the end of the regular season, the tie-breaker will be differential in goals for and goals against. The Sabres added to their lead in that department with their +5 goals against the Devils, while the Canadiens got +4 with their 5-1 win over Tampa Bay.
The Sabres, who have the much harder schedule than either Montreal or Carolina, have playing playoff hockey the past couple weeks just to stay in the playoff race. If anything, the harsh competition will make the Sabres a much better team come playoff time.
"We've been in the playoff mode for three weeks just for survival," said Sabres' coach Lindy Ruff. "It's still survival. We haven't accomplished anything yet. We put ourselves in a situation where we had to dig out of a hole, and we are still digging."
Curtis Brown had a pair of goals and Doug Gilmour, still fighting the after affects of a two-week flu bug, had three assists in a dominating Sabres performance over a Devils team who had been the top team in the Eastern Conference before the Sabres knocked them for a loop.
It was the Sabres third straight win and they have won 7 out of their last 8 games. They have also reached the .500 mark for the first time in months. Buffalo has never broken this barrier all season.
In the first period, the Sabres opened up with some intense pressure on Devils goalie Martin Brodeur. However, a little over halfway through the first period, Brown took a hooking penalty. During the penalty, Alexei Zhitnik poked the puck past Claude Lemieux and Stu Barnes raced up the left side with Richard Smehlik joining him on a two-on-one break on Martin Brodeur. Instead of passing to Smehlik, Barnes elected to shoot it. He put a slap shot on Brodeur from the left faceoff circle that went over his shoulder, top shelf and the Sabres had a 1-0 lead. It was Barnes 19th of the season and came exactly at the 12 minute mark of the period.
The Barnes goal set the table for the aggressive, desperation style of hockey the Sabres wold play the entire game. The Devils outshot the Sabres 32-24, but Buffalo clearly had the better scoring chances. Hasek did come up with some spectacular saves and has once again reached the pinnacle of his game.
"I don't want to talk about the playoffs until we already make it," commented Hasek. "Montreal won today again. We still have two games, I don't even know how many we have to win. We take it game-by-game. I don't even know if we need three points or two points. All my focus is on tomorrow's (Friday's) game against Pittsburgh."
In the second period, Hasek stopped Lemieux when he had a breakaway on the Dominator. Before that, in the first period, Hasek stopped ex-Sabre Alexander Mogilny when he got a shot off from in close.
"I thought the breakaway was his biggest accomplishment," said Ruff. "We hadn't gotten the big saves earlier in the year."
Gilmour, who took a bottle of Pepto Bismo with him on his trip to New Jersey, had three big assists against his former team. Gilmour, despite his weakened state, has finally gotten back into the Sabres scoring act. He assisted on the Sabres next three goals.
Buffalo opened the second period on the power play and Jason Woolley rifled home his 8th of the season after Gilmour fed him at the point with only 32 seconds gone in the second stanza. Peca formed the screen in front of Brodeur with Scott Stevens attempting to clear the area in front of the goaltender. Then, 3 minutes later, Gilmour made a great backhand pass over to Curtis Brown from along the boards, who was all alone in front of Brodeur and he put a wrist shelf top shelf making it 3-0 Sabres.
"He's given us the one playmaker we've needed," Ruff described Gilmour who came over in a trade with Chicago for Michael Grosek. "He's not necessarily a big guy, but he's the one who can make that 5-foot pass through legs, over sticks. We didn't have a guy who could do that."
"We came out and had a power play and the first thing we said was just get shots at the net because we haven't been working the puck around too well," Gilmour remarked. "Woolley got a shot from the point, Peca screened him (Brodeur) and it was a goal."
Michael Peca closed out the scoring in close with 1:26 to go. With the Devils attempting to wreck Hasek's shutout bid, the Sabres stole the puck and went into New Jersey's zone late in the game. Vladimir Tsyplakov made a perfect pass to Peca, and the Sabres captain winged it past Brodeur for his 20th of the season to cap off the scoring.
Matthew Barnaby and the Pittsburgh Penguins come to town for the Friday night fights in HSBC arena. Pittsburgh, who has already clinched a playoff berth, still hasn't secured the seventh spot yet. The Sabres, knowing that they have to win the remaining two games to assure themselves a seed in the postseason, still have a slight chance of overtaking the Penguins.
"We knew what we had to do coming in here," said Curtis Brown. "Jersey doesn't give a whole lot up and we knew we'd have to create it using our forechecking, getting our defense involved. I think that's been the difference the last couple of weeks. Our ‘D' is becoming more involved and that's creating a lot more havoc on the opposition and creating more chances for us."
Talking about the outstanding Gilmour passes that set up his two goals, Brown said, "We picked Gilmour up knowing what to expect. Leadership, just a great playmaker, gritty guy, he's one of the complete packages in this league. That's one of the benefits going out and making a trade for a veteran player, you know what you're going to get right away. He's filled in magnificently, he's really pulling this team along."
The Devils are besides themselves over their current slump.
"I could have played goal," Devils coach Larry Robinson fumed. "If you're not going to work, you're not going to win anything. We flat-out got out-worked, out-hustled, out-hit, out-everything. We circled all night. Why? Probably because it's easy."
"We're here fighting for first place and we just roll over," said Brodeur.
.
The Devils continue to slide in the standings as the Philadelphia Flyers, by winning on Thursday, tied New Jersey for the top spot in the east with 101 points. In their last 24 games, the Devils are having a hellish time, going 8-14-3. Maybe the Devils lost against the Sabres because they don't want to face Buffalo with Hasek and Gilmour in the first round.
"It's tough because at one point, we were almost 15 points ahead," Robinson said. "It's not the end of the world, but we have to face reality. Just because the playoffs are starting, we're not going to be able to say, ‘I'm Claude Lemieux. I'm going to start scoring.'"
Meanwhile, the Sabres are happy that Dominik Hasek is at the top of his game.
"I particularly think that in the last two games that as close to his old form as I've seen him," Ruff said after practice Wednesday. "Dom has made some games look pretty easy again, which really tells you that he's kind of zoned in."
Dominik Hasek recorded his third shutout of the season and second in 5 days and is finally at the top of his game. He made 32 saves and was stellar in the nets. With less than a week to go until the playoffs begin, Hasek seems to be ready to take his team on his shoulders and carry them into the depths of the playoffs. That is if they make them. Yes, Buffalo's fate is still undecided as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-0 last night.
Michael Peca blasts the puck past Martin Brodeur after getting a perfect feed from Vladimir Tsyplakov late in the third period. It was Peca's 20th of the season.
[AP Photo/Bill Kostroun]
"You win, everything is good," said Brown. "If you doze off for a second and come up on the wrong end of the stick, we know we're out of the playoffs."
Ex-Sabre Alexander Mogilny gets shot off on Dominik Hasek, but the Sabres' All-Star goalie makes one of his 32 saves on route to his third shutout of the season.
[AP Photo/Bill Kostroun]
Brown scored his second of the night and his 22nd of the season when Gilmour had another perfect feed from the top of left circle and Brown's shot trickled through Brodeur's pads making it 4-0 at the 10:47 mark of the third period.
Maxim Afinogenov gets the heave-ho from the Devils' Jason Arnott along the back boards during the first period of the Sabres 5-0 win over New Jersey.
[AP Photo/Bill Kostroun]
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