Sabres earn day in the sun with win over Panthers
By Rick Anderson
February 29, 2000

Will the REAL Buffalo Sabres please stand up!

The Buffalo Sabres are not only taking a roller-coaster ride this season, they are taking their fans along with them. And a lot of those Sabres' diehards want off before they start feeling queasy.

Erik Rasmussen pursues the puck to the right of Trevor Kidd as Oleg Kvasha checks him.

The Sabres, coming off two of their worst back-to-back performances of the year, rebounded with a solid 5-2 victory over the Florida Panthers Monday night and had their fans reaching for the Dramamine again. After two weekend games in which the only Sabre to show up was Michael Peca, the Sabres reappeared as a unified team in Miami and dominated, especially in the second period when they scored three unanswered goals.

In Sunrise, Florida, the Sabres hope the game they played Monday night was the dawn of a better days ahead. It was a game where goals came from the least likely sources. It was also a game that the Sabres desperately needed to win in order to get back into somewhat reasonable position to make a run for the last and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

"That was a game we really needed," said Sabres' coach Lindy Ruff. "If you lose three in a row you start to get that feeling that you never know when you might win again."

The unlikely sources for Sabres' offense were two defensemen who had only two goals between them before this game. Step out of the shadows and into the limelight Richard Smehlik and Alexei Zhitnik! Two of the most maligned Sabres by irrate fans this season, Smehlik and Zhitnik came through when the team really needed more players to come up and take the lead with lighting the lamp.

Stu Barnes got two goals, one that was a controversial tally that had to be reviewed for several minutes before the replay officials overruled the once decision. Erik Rasmussen, who hadn't scored in 22 games, also got an important goal. This time of year, every goal is important and the Sabres are starting to spread the wealth around instead of relying on just Peca and Miroslav Satan to score all the goals.

Ruff offered his team some extra incentive to play a great game against Florida before the game, as if they needed any with the playoff race as tight as it is. He told his troops that if they won the game, they'd get the next day off. That meant the players could brush up on their golfing skills in sunny Florida. The players' eyes must have lit up like 100 watt light bulbs after Ruff offered that inducement. They hadn't had a day off on the road since December 1998.

"I thought I would throw them a little bone," Ruff said.

The team came out and played with the intensity they were missing in the weekend games.

The Sabres turned a disadvantage into a definite advantage early in the game. Playing shorthanded, Peca started a two-on-one break into the Panthers' zone and made a perfect pass to Barnes going down the left side. Barnes roofed his shot past Trevor Kidd and the Sabres had the sudden lead. While scoring first this season, the Sabres have an impressive 21-8-5 record.

"When they got that short-handed goal, we kind of came apart for a little bit there," Florida captain Scott Mellanby said.

The Sabres outshot the Panthers in the first period 11-8 and kept the pressure on Kidd. But it was in the second period that the Sabres blew open the doors of National Car Rental Center with three unanswered goals to take a 4-0 lead.

The torrent of goals started when the Sabres were killing off the remnants of a Panther power play when Vaclav Varada found Alexei Zhitnik coming out of the penalty box breaking in on the right side. Just like Peca's feed of Barnes was perfect on the Sabres first goal, Varada threaded the needle and Zhitnik got off a snap shot that got past Kidd. It was Zhitnik's first goal since November 10th, 49 games ago. The standing joke was that when Zhitnik would get a shot off from the point, everybody would duck - including the goalie. His shots were so hard that if they hit someone, they'd suffer a concussion. Zhitnik has been getting his shot off much to high this season, so much so that even the fans are taking cover behind the net when "Zman" shoots.

I thought I was going to get into the Guinness Book pretty soon," laughed Zhitnik. "It was kind of embarrassing for me. Seven to 10 goals a season is normal for me. Not one."

A minute and 8 seconds later, the Sabres were suddenly up 3-0 as Rasmussen got the puck off a faceoff in the Panthers' zone, burst through a hole like a running back and flipped one over Kidd. It was Rasmussen's first goal in 22 games.

Then came the controversial Barnes goal. Satan got the pass up to Barnes, who was breaking in on Kidd. He was knocked down to his knees, tried to get up on one, but instead attempted to shoot at Kidd while on one knee. As Barnes kept sliding towards Kidd, he crashed into the Panther goalie, knocking the puck into the net along with Kidd. The collision knocked the net off the moorings and the refs ruled "no goal." But Ruff pointed upstairs for a video replay and the officials obliged his wishes. After what seemed like ages, the video officials called down that it was indeed a goal and that was the end of Kidd's duties for the night. Mike Vernon came in and allowed only one more goal.

Barnes received a break on his second goal, which came after he was hauled down and wiped out Kidd on a partial breakaway. Barnes fell to his knees and knocked the puck loose as he crashed into Kidd. Officials initially ruled the net was off its moorings before correcting themselves after replay.

Florida made a game of it when they got a goal by Pavel Bure, his league leading 43rd of the year at the 14:57 mark of the 2nd period. Todd Simpson got the Panthers within 2 goals when he scored with a little over six minutes into the third period.

That is when the most unusual event of a strange evening took place. Richard Smehlik scored a goal! He got his first tally since November 28th, 24 games ago. Curtis Brown passed off to Smehlik, pinching in at the blue line, and the defenseman rifled off a shot that Vernon could not get with his catching glove.

Dominik Hasek made 30 saves in this game, playing much stronger than his last two outings over the weekend where he allowed 10 goals.

"I don't want to say it was an easy game for me, but we were up the whole game,"said Hasek. "Bure had one chance to score the whole game. He was one of the keys. What can I say? It was a pretty easy game for me."

"That was a game we really needed," Ruff said. "If you lose three in a row you start to get that feeling that you never know when you might win again."

The Sabres enjoyed the Florida sun and got a few rounds of golf in before heading for New York City where they face the Rangers again in a critical showdown for the 8th and final playoff spot.

"We haven't really earned that right for a day off," maintained Brian Holzinger. "It's a good time for us to relax and get ready for a big game in New York. We have to catch those guys in front of us. It's a big one."

Ruff probably figured his team needed some R & R to get ready for the big playoff push they need in the next few weeks.

"The heat is never off," said Ruff. "I told them before the game, "We're either going to make (the playoffs) or we're not. Let's let it all hang out.' "

WATCH VIDEO OF ALEXEI ZHITNIK'S GOAL...

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