Sabres shatter Senators in bizarre game
By Rick Anderson
January 29, 2000
The Sabres had a smashing good time against the Ottawa Senators Friday night as they beat them 1-0. Martin Biron recorded his league-leading 5th shutout of the season in the process. Biron seems to be getting better as the return of Dominik Hasek appears imminent. He made 21 saves in the game, five of which were in spectacular fashion.
"I think it's great, it's something you always look at and you feel good about it," said Biron about recording another shutout. "As a team, when you win games 1-0 or 2-1, it proves we can play in a tough situation."
"I don't think we could have pictured that," said Ruff.
The Dominator has been taking full practices with the squad this week and is hoping to be between the pipes as soon as the Sabres' game against Anaheim this Tuesday.
Biron knows that his time in the nets for the Sabres may be coming to a close because of Hasek's return. He also knows that he has to make the most of that time to prove to the Sabres brass that he's the goalie of the future, if not now.
"I just want to prove to a lot of people that I can play in this league," Biron said. "I want to be here and learn more and gain experience."
Biron has been using Hasek's locker in the Dominator's absence. When asked if he has to give his locker back, Biron said, "He said that the other day. Jim Pizzutelli (the Sabres' head trainer/massage therapist) was making fun of me because he said ‘No more locker, Marty. You're going back to a small locker.'
"I don't care," Marty laughed. "If it's Dom's locker, I'll give it away."
Even though the score was your typical Buffalo-Ottawa 1-0 game, the events that transpired were far from typical. Two goals were disallowed (one by each team) and Brian Holzinger's clanker off the post was reviewed and also disallowed after the goal judge flashed on the goal light. That same goal judge was awarded for his efforts a little while later with the biggest surprise of his goal-judging career.
The most smashing development of the game was when Rhett Warrener took a slap shot on Senators' goalie Patrick Lalime with a little less than 2 minutes left in the first period and it flew past Lalime's glove and smashed into the plexiglass behind the net, shattering the glass right onto the goal judge's head. The goal judge, Tony Caggiano, had to be taken to the dressing room to get stitched up and was replaced afterwards. The referee wisely called the players off the ice for an early intermission with only 1:21 left in the first period while the glass was being repaired.
"I don't know how it broke the glass," said a surprised Warrener. "It certainly wasn't all my power."
"There were goofy things that happened that are going to make the Plays of the Week - or the Bloopers of the Week," Biron bantered. "But we'll take that 1-0 win any time."
Outside of the disallowed goals, and the smashing end of the first period, the game was the typical close-checking, defensive Sabres-Senators struggle. The Sabres defense played one of its strongest games of the season in front of Biron. Warrener especially picked up his game and appears to be ready to play up to the standard he set last season when he came to Buffalo via a trade with Florida for Mike Wilson.
"I was happy with our game in all areas," Ruff said. "Through the neutral zone, offensively, we had some good traffic. We got in Lalime's way a couple of times. It was a strong game for us."
The game winner came early in the game. James Patrick opened and finished the scoring at the 2:37 mark of the first period. Maxim Afinogenov and Jason Woolley got the assists. Afinogenov wheeled down the ice, skated all the way behind the net and passed it out to Patrick, who took a slap shot from the right faceoff circle. Lalime, subbing for Ron Tugnutt who had the flu, was screened on the shot and it went over his left shoulder.
"Somehow it found a way in," said Patrick. "Max made a great play, he drew two or three of their guys to him and fed it to me. I just tried to shoot it my hardest and get it on net."
It looked like Patrick scored his second goal of the game when he got a shot from the point past Lalime, but Vaclav Varada had contact with the Senators' goalie and was ruled to have interfered with him, thus disallowing the goal. Exactly one minute later, with 6:28 left in the second period, Shawn McEachern swatted the puck past Biron after he skated through the crease and got the puck from Andreas Dackell. Biron immediately protested the goal and the video judge disallowed that goal also. Apparently, Dackell's pass to McDachern had been batted down with a high stick.
Commenting about the two disallowed goals, Lindy Ruff said, "They got the disallowed thing right tonight anyway. It was a tough call against us to take that one away, but you know we got the call going the other way too. If you look at it real close, it was probably the right call."
"It's always tough to not give up a goal,"said Biron. "When you look at the pressure they put on us throughout the game and everything that happened - we had the goal disallowed, the broken glass, they had a goal disallowed - it's tough to keep your focus."
Biron now has posted more shutouts than any rookie goaltender since the Flyers' Tommy Soderstrom, who had 5 in 1992-93. Biron now has shutout the Sens twice this season. The last one was a scoreless deadlock back on December 8.
"Whenever I can come out and play the puck and help my D, they help me out most of the time, so I want to do it (for them)," Biron said. When asked his opinion about his season so far, Biron replied, "You've got to feel good about the way I've personally been playing, stepping up a notch every time I've had a big challenge. I've started off slowly and I've learned more about the game. As a team, I think we can do better. There's some nights when I was off. There's some games when some of the guys are off. You know we can do better. Tomorrow night's a big challenge (against Boston). We want to turn it around on a road trip."
The game against the Bruins Saturday night is crucial for the Sabres in the tight Eastern Conference playoff race. The Sabres now stand in the 11th spot in the East, but only 1 or 2 points separates them from three other teams and the eighth and final seed. Carolina has 48 points, while Boston and Pittsburgh have 49. The Sabres have 47 points after the victory over Ottawa. After winning two straight games, the players are hoping they are starting to jell just in time for a playoff march. They are hoping to follow in the footsteps of the Washington Capitals, who have suddenly turned their fortunes around by winning ten straight.
With Dominik Hasek reclaiming his locker and his starting job in the crease, Biron could not pick a better time to peak with back-to-back stellar performances in goal. By shutting out the Senators for the second time this season, he broke from the pack of NHL shutout leaders. He had been tied with St. Louis' Roman Turek, Calgary's Fred Brathwaite, and Ottawa's Ron Tugnutt, who missed Friday's game because his bout with the flu. Biron now has allowed only one goal in two games.
Asked how he feels about Hasek returning as soon as next week, Biron said, "I think you've got to feel good when you see anybody coming back from an injury as severe as he got. When you've torn something in your groin muscle, it's not a very good thing. I think the guys have been enjoying it a lot when he's been on the ice. I've been looking at him a lot because he gets the net where I usually am. I just am sitting on the board, waiting to get into the net and he just shows me so many things - he battles for every puck. And then I get out there and I have to battle for every puck because then I'm going to look a little stupid if I don't. He just shows everybody how hard you have to work in practice so you can be ready for games. It's just great to see him."
The opposition is now starting to stand up and take notice of the rookie's play.
"He looks like he's playing with a lot of confidence," Senators' captain Daniel Alfredsson said.
"It was a tight checking game," said Ruff's counterpart, Senators' coach Jacques Martin. "We had some chances and Biron made some good saves."
Ruff was in good humor during his post game conference.
Talking about the team starting to jell, Ruff said, "We've been looking for a break (referring to the shattered pain of glass in front of the goal judge).
"Warrener might work his way onto the power-play with that shot. He's got to put the same height as Zhitnik's shot now."
Ruff then turned serious and explained the importance of the last two victories by the Sabres.
"You have to win games any way you can," Ruff explained. "We're not going to score seven or eight goals every night. We're not going to score four or five. The norm has to be two or three.
"Coming back from the west coast, that was a pretty demanding trip," he continued. "I was worried about the first game (back from the trip). We were good for about 30 minutes (in the game against Tampa). You could see it caught up to us. Tonight, it seemed like we had a lot of gas. We came out jumping. Varada set the tone early, it was good to see him back. A lot of good hits. We had a lot of guys finishing (checks) early, which I thought was the difference in the game.
"We put a lot bigger press on against Ottawa just for the fact that we don't want to give them any room. We played well that way against them where we take some chances, but we get caught the odd time. I think we got caught twice tonight, but it made the difference. Richard Smehlik had a couple great chances, Warrener had a couple great chances."
Patrick has quietly been contributing this season. He is one of the Sabres' steadiest defensemen and every once and awhile pinches in and contributes to the offense.
"Obviously, getting a goal that early in the game, you don't think it's going to stand up," the Sabres' veteran defenseman said. "I heard there was some interference on the goalie. I usually don't score from there, so I probably needed a little help. Somehow, it found a way in."
WATCH VIDEO OF WARRENER'S SHATTERING SLAP SHOT
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When Dominik Hasek went down with his serious groin tear on October 29th against Florida, Lindy Ruff had to call up Biron from the Rochester Americans of the AHL. Little did he know that his 22-year old rookie goalie would be leading the NHL in shutouts before the All-Star break.
Maximum Afinogenov goes sprawling as Senator's goalie Patrick Lalime quickly tries to get back into the crease
Joey Juneau finally got to show what he could do on Marine Midland ice. Last year the Sabres traded for him right at the trading deadline to add some punch to their offense. He never supplied the goal scoring touch that the Sabres acquired him for. Friday night, he was all over the ice and had at least 4 glorious scoring opportunities. However, Biron was up to the challenge and stopped every one of them.
Vaclav Varada slides into Patrick Lalime in his attempt to create crease havoc
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