Biron & Tugnutt goose eggs!
By Rick Anderson
Thursday, December 9, 1999

So many exceptional scoring opportunities and no goals! The Buffalo Sabres and Ottawa Senators battled to a 0-0 tie and by the score one would think it was a boring game. That's the furthest from the truth. The Sabres peppered Ron Tugnutt with 30 shots and couldn't get one behind him. The Sabres remain winless against Ottawa in their last 10 regular season games, with five of the last six ending in ties.

"We deserved better," said Ruff after the game. "When you're losing and you're struggling, you don't get a lot of bounces. We didn't get a lot of bounces, but we worked hard to get the chances we got. They're a fast team and I thought we one-upped them in the speed department. It was a good effort. That was really more like a playoff performance."

Tugnutt was incredible in the nets for Ottawa, looking like Dominik Hasek at his best, flopping around, doing the splits and blocking everything that came his way. For Tugnutt, it was his 14th career shutout and third this season

The Senators' Colin Forbes decks James Patrick with season's greetings

Martin Biron was also sharp in the nets, making some nice glove saves while stopping 23 shots. It was Biron's second shutout in his last 7 starts.

"My first professional shutout in Rochester was a scoreless tie," said Biron. "It's always tough. One way, you've got a shutout and you've got a point. The way Tugnutt played, he deserved the point too."

"This was my first (0-0 tie)," Tugnutt said. "I was involved in a 0-0 tie in the (1997) playoffs against Buffalo. But you play to an end there."

Sabres captain Michael Peca, who has been snake-bitten all season said, "We're playing well enough to win hockey games. It's a case where we've got to get the power play a goal and find a way to generate some offense."

The first period was a defensive struggle like past performances between the two teams. The Sabres had their best opportunity to score right at the end of the period. With 12 seconds remaining, the faceoff was in the Ottawa zone. The Sabres won the draw and got three quality shots off on Tugnutt and one pass from behind the net went right through the crease out in front. Tugnutt had to be sharp in stopping both James Patrick and Miroslav Satan as the Sabres buzzed around the Ottawa goal until the horn sounded to end the period. Both teams managed only six shots apiece in the period.

In the second period, the Sabres had even more chances. Curtis Brown did get the puck behind Tugnutt, at 2:20 into the second period, but the ref ruled that Brown had his stick above the cross bar and waived the goal off. Lindy Ruff argued in vain about the non-goal and finally conceded afterwards that the refs were right.

The most glorious opportunity was when Curtis Brown and Satan broke in 2-on-1 on the Ottawa goal. Brown skated in all alone and he passed back to Satan. Tugnutt made a spectacular save with his right skate off Satan's shot. Martin Biron, starting his first game after sitting on the bench the last two, made a great save on Magnus Arvedson when Arvedson one-timed a pass right in front of the Buffalo goalie. Biron made a outstanding save by blocking it with his left arm. Even though the Senators out shot the Sabres 11-10, the Sabres had the better opportunities to score, but Tugnutt was a stone wall in the Ottawa goal, making a half dozen saves that could go on a highlight film.

In the third period, both goalies made some glittering saves to keep the game scoreless. Tugnutt was unbeatable during a couple scrums in front of the net. The Sabres got a scare as Satan got a stick near his left eye and had to leave the game, but he came back wearing a visor and almost scored with about two and a half minutes to go when he shot the puck off the post while Tugnutt was flat on his back. Tugnutt stopped Brown on the rebound, then made a most amazing save when he lifted up his arm and got his glove on Michal Grosek's slamming shot from the slot.

"Three Dominik flopper saves, that's somewhat uncharacteristic of me," said Tugnutt. "But I guess at the time it was called for. Satan waited a long time, he forced me down."

In the wild and wooly 4-on-4 overtime, the Sabres outgunned the Senators 4-1 and with 15 seconds to go, Satan hit another post. This is another game in which the Sabres failed to convert glorious opportunities. Tugnutt had a lot to do with it, but the Sabres have a way of making even average goalies look great.

"They are going to have to change the All-Star ballot because every goaltender we play is going to have to be put on it," joked Ruff. "You don't know how frustrating it is. I thought we deserved to win. But you've got to keep working at it. The one thing we didn't do was we never quit during the game."

Satan had one hell of a night, hitting a couple of posts and getting struck in the eye from an errant stick.

What can I say? It was just tough luck. We could have won the game right there," said Satan said. "There were a couple of chances in the game, but it was just like playoff hockey at times. It was boring hockey at times, when you wait for a mistake. No one wanted to risk making a mistake."

"I would take a couple of goals against to get the win," said Tugnutt."It's good to come into a game feeling good about your opponent, feeling like you've had success against them. We match up pretty evenly and it makes our games pretty tight checking."

This was the Sabres first scoreless tie since October 27, 1998 and was their eighth in team history. The tie also extended Buffalo's winless streak to five games, two of which are ties.

"We didn't get any scoring tonight but I think we had a lot of chances" said Jay McKee. "The forwards worked real hard and defensively they supported us. Ottawa is a team that really likes to forecheck. They're a tough team to play against, so I think we had some great help from our forwards. When they are forechecking like they are, we need a couple of crisp passes and the deep forward, the centerman, supporting us."

"That was a real big effort," said Ruff. "Tugnutt made some great saves. We hit a couple of posts. You look at the overtime, the post by Satan, the save he made on Afinogenov. The desperation we showed killing that penalty at the end (Grosek's holding the stick call at 18:08 of the third)…we had Zhitnik with a broken stick, we had guys laying down blocking shots.

"You can look at the last game against Ottawa - we were embarrassed. We showed some of the stuff from last year we did against them. Really all four lines had a good night. There were opportunities from everybody in every direction."

The Sabres make their sixth straight attempt to win a game on Friday night when they go against the Chicago Blackhawks at home.

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