Sabres Keep It Simple, beat Rangers 3-1
By Rick Anderson
Wednesday, December 22, 1999

The Buffalo Sabres came out of the Big Apple with two big accomplishments last night. First, they beat the Rangers 3-1. But the most astonishing feat was actually scoring a powerplay goal.

"We went out there and just kept it simple," said Curtis Brown who scored the Sabres first power play goal in 8 games.

The Sabres have the absolute worst powerplay in the National Hockey League. They haven't been able to buy a goal as of late. Brown's goal in the second period was only the second goal in the last 50 powerplay attempts for the Buffalo. It was Brown's 12th of the season.

Jay McKee takes down Kim Johnson as Martin Biron watches play

Brain Campbell, up from Rochester to fill in for an injured Richard Smehlik, made a nice pass over to Jason Woolley on the right point. Woolley let go a screamer which Brown was able to redirect past Rangers goalie Mike Richter. That put the Sabres up at 12:08 of the second period.

After scoring, Brown skated over to the glass in the right corner and pounded the glass in celebration.

"When you're oh-for-forever, you have to punch something when one goes in on the power play," said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. "I'm sure it was pent-up frustration and relief. Now, at least we start a streak where it's one-for-something. We're not oh-for."

"It wasn't pretty by any means," Brown described the Sabres finally scoring a powerplay. "It's just getting the puck through, and someone getting there for a tip or a rebound. Last year when we led the league in the playoffs with our powerplay, that's exactly what we did. It wasn't too much fancy stuff it was basically that grit and determination."

The Sabres were really attacking the zone last night, especially in the third period when there was a wild scramble in front of Richter. Michal Grosek was banging away at the puck in the crease when Miroslav Satan picked up the rebound and flipped it up high over Richter. The puck hit the crossbar, ricocheted in and out of the net for his 15th goal of the season. The puck came out so fast that the goal judge didn't even signal a goal, but the on-ice officials ruled it had gone in. That score came at the 7:08 mark of the third and the Sabres looked to be in complete command.

Two and a half minutes after Satan's goal, Jay McKee blasted a shot from the left point and Dixon Ward redirected it past Richter for his third of the year, making it 3-0.

Martin Biron was tested as severely as Richter, but he made some outstanding saves when the Rangers did put pressure on. One save came when the puck flipped up in the air and Biron had to race back to the crease and knock it out of mid air before it went into the net.

"It's easier to bat it out of the air than to wait for it to hit the ice and then play it," said Biron.

Right after the spectacular save, the Sabres went down and got their third goal of the game. When Ward scored that goal, Peca came down and patted the Sabres goalie on his helmet.

"Biron made a save as good as any save Dominik Hasek ever made," said Peca, after assisting on Ward's goal. "It led right to a goal."

Martin Biron sprawls to stop the shot from Jan Hlavac.

Biron also is starting to flop around and make acrobatic saves like Hasek. He finished with 28 saves and appeared to be heading towards a shutout when James Patrick took a double-minor high sticking penalty. After reviewing replays of the penalty, it appeared that Patrick should have gotten only a single 2 minute penalty.

The Sabres penalty killers played a solid game last night, but the 4 minute advantage finally worked to the Rangers favor as Mike Knuble put a backhander past the Sabres rookie with only 5:35 left in the game.

Biron had to be sharp in the first period when Alexandre Daigle had a breakaway at the 8:25 mark. Daigle came in alone on Biron, but the Sabres netminder positioned himself to force Daigle to shoot wide of the left post. On the very next shift, New York had a 2-on-1 on Martin and he blocked a scoring opportunity by Jan Hlavac.

"Shutouts are a nice thing, but to win the game tonight at Madison Square Garden was really more important," said Biron. "I felt pretty comfortable out there. Every time you get a chance to make saves that early in the game it makes you feel better and it gives more confidence to your teammates. I think the first five periods (minutes) the Rangers were playing really well and then the last 15 periods of the first period we took it away from them. In the second we only gave them five shots, we really took the game away from them and that's why we won the game tonight."

Both Brown and Michael Peca came out and played with much more intensity than they have in the recent past. Peca, who seems to be getting his defensive game back together, was hitting more than he had in his past two games. He has yet to score a goal or even get an assist in what must seem ages to the Sabres captain. But the effort was there and with Brown, the puck is starting to hit the back of the net for him.

"That was the first time in quite a while that we had everybody going," Brown said. "Everybody was putting their life on the line, so to speak, blocking shots, giving that second and third effort. You know what? We're not the fanciest team, but when we have efforts like that we're going to be awful tough to beat. I think it was a big step in the right direction."

"I think one of the big keys to our success is to just get it deep, use our strength along the wall, Grosek gets in there and bangs it around. We have enough hockey sense down there to open it up for one another."

By beating the Rangers, the Sabres continue their dominance over the Rangers. It has been over 3 years since New York has beaten Buffalo. That was back on December 13, 1996. The Sabres hold a 8-0-4 stranglehold over Rangers.

"You don't like to lose that many games against anybody," said former Sabres GM and now Rangers coach John Muckler. "When Buffalo plays the way they did tonight, they deserve to get the win."

The Sabres peppered Richter with 32 shots and could have scored 6 goals last night. He stonewalled Satan on a breakaway in the third period after Satan made his patented deke move.

"I think coming out of a period where we weren't winning games, we were playing pretty well and were getting wins," Richter said. "We've gotten away from our game a little bit.

"We've been getting sloppy in our play and we looked a bit like a tired team tonight. We didn't play as sharp as we should have. I think the Sabres looked ready to go and they did play well. We weren't terrible, but we didn't do enough to win."

The Rangers who were hot as of late were cooled off fast by the Sabres speed and the great goaltending by Biron.

"I don't know if it's a dangerous period," Muckler said. "We didn't play the last two games as well as we had played recently. But we hadn't played a team as fast as Buffalo either.

"We were beaten by a better team. It's as simple as that. It's something for us to shoot for. We have to get better."

The victory improves the Sabres record to 3-1-2 in their last six starts. They come home to host the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.

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