A goal scorer's delight!
By Rick Anderson
Saturday, December 11, 1999

It took a long time to crack the seemingly shatterproof barriers, but the Buffalo Sabres were finally able to score a couple of goals and in the process win themselves a hockey game last night. By scoring two goals in the third period and beating the Chicago Blackhawks 2-1 as a result, the Sabres may have discovered that scoring and winning are mysteriously linked.

"It was a character-type win to come back - anytime you come back in this league now it's a big win for you," said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff.

For two periods it looked as if the Sabres were going to lose to the Hawks, the cellar dwellers of the Western Conference. If they couldn't beat the Blackhawks, who could they beat. It took 34 more seconds in the third period before Buffalo finally scored, ending their long scoring slump in what amounted to over 8 periods of play. It took Satan himself to score the goal, as he broke in alone on the Chicago goalie and used his patented backhand to finally get the Sabres on the board.

Steve Passmore blocks a shot by Mad Max right in the crease

"I'd hate to have waited another ten or fifteen minutes to see a goal go in because I think I was like everybody else in the building," said Ruff. "It was getting irritating. Some guy yelled out ‘this ain't rugby.' He was starting to get a little irritating too."

"I thought we were going to come up with some goals tonight and if we didn't we would have all had to go into therapy," Jason Woolley joked after the game.

They say when it rains it pours. Well, the levee broke for the Sabres last night against the Blackhawks who are entrenched in last place. With 13 minutes gone by in the first period, Cory Sarich coughed up the puck and Blair Atcheynum attempted a centering pass. Geoff Sanderson skated in the crease to clear it, it hit his skate and went in his own net.

Atcheynum was credited with the goal as he was the last one to touch in and for some reason an assist was given to Brad Brown. Sanderson should have gotten at least an assist on the goal he scored against Marty Biron!

"It was a lack of communication," said Sanderson about whether he or Biron were going to play the puck. "I thought I was doing the right thing by back checking right up until I put the brakes on in the crease. I was thinking, ‘I can put it on our net, but that's about the only one.' " Then breathing a sigh of relief that he wouldn't be the demonic goat head of the game, he said "I'm just happy we won."

Geoff Sanderson kicks in only Blackhawks goal past Biron

Geoff thought I was going to cover it for him, and he was starting to take off," Biron said. "It was one of those plays where you both just kind of look at each other."

About Sanderson scoring in his own goal, Ruff said, "You're thinking now that bounces are going to go the other way and it could get even worse. But I thought Marty made some huge saves for us after that, a couple key saves at key times that allowed us to win the game and that's all I can ask."

The Sabres finally scored for the first time in over 7 periods when Miro Satan got a break on Steve Passmore, deked to the left and then went to his backhand to beat the Blackhawks goalie. That goal broke a scoreless streak of 162 minutes and 29 seconds! That is unless you count Sanderson's goal scored into his own net. In order to beat the franchise record, Buffalo had to go another period plus some change to break their worst scoring drought ever which happened in their very first year of their existence, back in 1970. That streak started in the third period of their very first game and lasted until late in the third period of their fourth game.

"After the second period, we were trying to get things going, and I got a lucky break on the blue line when their defenseman (Bryan McCabe) didn't handle the puck very well and I was so alone in front of the goalie," said Satan of his thirteenth goal of the season. Curtis Brown and Michal Grosek got the assists on that one.

"The last couple of games and we were not scoring I was putting pressure on myself, but it wasn't working," said the Sabres leading goal scorer. "I hit three posts in the game against Ottawa and I couldn't score. It is something when you cannot do it, you're putting too much pressure on yourself. So today I was just telling my self ‘If you're going to get a chance, you're going to get a chance and you're going to do the best you can' and that's what happened on the goal."

"It was a great goal for us just because we could see we could get one. You could see the momentum shift," Woolley added.

The Blackhawks got a huge chance to tie it up after Satan's goal when Paul Kruse got a 5 minute major for slashing. The Sabres penalty killers did a great job in preventing any real scoring chances during that major shorthanded stretch. It was right after killing off the penalty that, with 8 minutes gone by in the third period, Dixon Ward flew down the right side and threw a perfect pass to Maxim Afinogenov, who one-timed it pass Passmore for his seventh goal of the season. That was all the scoring it took as Biron prevented any puck penetration in the Sabres goal and actually shut out the opposition for the second game in a row as the only goal to get past him in those games came off the skate of Sanderson.

Biron, who improved his record to 10-6-1, had the help of his extra equipment late in the game to preserve the win. Michael Nylander clanked one off the right post with only 1:40 remaining in regulation. Ruff was pleased with Biron's performance and the pressure that Dwayne Roloson is providing by also playing well in his last outings.

Talking about the heating up competition for the No. 1 goalie spot, Ruff said, "I think it's a great problem. There's a little competition between the two of them and it's not because they've played poorly, it's because they're both playing very well. It's a friendly competition, they both want to do good. Next week we've got three games, we've got a back-to-back situation. Dwayne will play next week regardless of how Marty goes. He deserves to play, he's played extremely well for us and in the back-to-back situations he'll play."

Afinogenov, who has been slowly learning the English language and has Alexei Zhitnik as his roommate and interpreter, finally broke his silence and spoke about his game winning goal.

"Dixon made a great pass," said Zhitnik, who was interpreting for Maxim. "I didn't have to do anything special, I just had to put the puck in the net."

Maybe when Zhitnik finally helps Maxim to speak English, the Russian Rocket can return the favor and teach Zhitnik how to score again.

A lot of comments after the game were about Afinogenov not feeling as much pressure as the veterans with the scoring slump. Ruff disagreed.

"I thought he felt a little pressure too," Ruff said. "He didn't loosen up until the third period to get wheeling and dealing the way he can. He fit in with the rest of us. It seems when he gets the puck on his stick now it's going to go in the net and that's great to see. He's an exciting kid to watch play. You stick him out there, you watch him juke and jive and twist and turn and when he gets a step on a defenseman wide, you know he's got him beat. He drew an important penalty for us. He turning into a good player for us."

The Sabres defense played their third straight extraordinary game. The 0-0 tie against Ottawa was a gem and the defense also pitched a shut out in this one.

"We played a Sabres kind of game," said Ward. "The kind of game we used to play last season. We've been doing that for a little while now, the only thing missing has been the goals, but I'm convinced they'll come. You can't have that many guys in a slump for so long without having one or two breaking through and when that happens the others start going right along with them."

The Sabres outshot Chicago 29-21, but didn't have too many real scoring chances until the third period.

"We didn't have nearly the opportunities tonight that we had against Ottawa," said Ruff in his post game conference. "Really, our opportunities were few and far between. I'd rather take an ugly win than a great tie anytime. We're satisfied with the two points. We worked our way through a game that wasn't very well executed. We didn't pass the puck well, we didn't skate very well at times but when we had to hunker down and kill off a five minute major we got it done. We played really tight in the third period."

When asked if he did anything special during the intermission between the second and third periods to help end the scoring drought Lindy replied, "Not actually. Actually it was very quiet in between the second and the third. (We) talked about a couple reasons (why) I thought we weren't scoring. A couple areas off of cycles where we were trying to get involved too much, our defense was kind of running in and creating a bit of a schmozzel (chaos) on us. We told one guy to stay in front of the net and try to let two guys battle, try to use our defense more. Just believe that if we got one we could win the game."

With the way things have been going recently for the Sabres, hitting posts, getting all sorts of pressure on opposing goalies and still coming up empty, fans were wondering if they Sabres were ever going to score again in this century.

"You start wondering why, you start thinking this one has to bounce in somewhere." Ruff said. "You've seen some scary streaks before where a team can go a couple games without scoring a goal. Players start to press and every little mistake you make seems to be just critical because you know you're not scoring goals. I think you start accentuating the negative because you're worried about one mistake killing you, when instead if you had scored three or four goals that one mistake wouldn't be that important."

In reviewing the victory, the Sabres made the Blackhawks look good for two periods. Any team that scores on itself has a tendency to do that. But the Sabres finally found their legs and in this case their long lost scoring ability as their two most proficient scorers lit the lamp in the final period to finally win their first game in December. No, the Blackhawks did not play a good game. But it was as probably good as they can play considering the chaos they are currently in with a chance in the coaching ranks and their dismal start of the season. That Buffalo even spotted them a goal, the Sandman's gift, and still they still lose makes the Hawks plight even more pitiful.

It was like the world being lifted off Satan's shoulders when he finally lit the lamp in the third period for the Sabres first goal in what seemed like eternity.

"For me, it was a long time coming," a relieved Satan said. "I usually don't need so many scoring chances to score a goal. The last couple games were just awful. I couldn't do anything. I was happy I was finally able to put it in."

The Sabres now get three days off before they host the Philadelphia Flyers, whom they haven't beaten in two meeting so far this season. The rest couldn't come too soon for some of the Sabres.

"For two weeks we were playing every second day so some of the guys were saying they are tired and finally we are going to get a couple days off and get ready for another stretch at home," Satan said.

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