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Sabres fold tents in third period, lose to Devils 6-3
By Rick Anderson
January 7, 2000

The Buffalo Sabres actually played two solid periods of hockey Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils. Somebody has to tell them that hockey games last 60 minutes. The New Jersey Devils became the second straight team to come into Buffalo and score 4 unanswered goals during the time it counted the most as they blew past the Sabres 6-3. Buffalo had the lead twice in this game, but a complacent attitude allowed the Devils to roar back and hand the Sabres their fifth loss in six games.

Lindy Ruff brought up two youngsters from Rochester for the game and both were impressive. Dimitri Kalinin was brought up on defense to help shore up the blueline and Denis Hamel was up to help the offense. Hamel scored on his first shot on goal when he trailed Alexei Zhitnik on a rush. Hamel picked up a rebound and flipped it towards Martin Brodeur. The puck arched up in the air and Brodeur missed the puck with his catching mit. The puck somehow got behind the All-Star goalie. The goal came at 2:09 of the first period and the sellout crowd in Marine Midland Arena thought they were in for a good show.

Martin Brodeur makes point-blank save on Vaclav Varada

"It took a lot of pressure off," said Hamel. "With a goal, I'm happy. To score against one of the best makes me feel good. But when we lose, it's not the same."

Hamel has now joined the elite class of Buffalo Sabres greats who have scored on their very first shot in a Sabre uniform. Such greats as Danny Gare, Alexander Mogilny, and Brad May scored on their first NHL shot. There was one more Sabre to perform that feat and it would be a great trivia question. Can you believe that Rob Ray also scored on his first shot on goal?

A little over a minute later, Denis Pederson tied the game. Then Claude Lemieux got his 13th of the year on a powerplay three minutes later. The Devils had two goals on their first three shots on Sabres' goalie Dwayne Roloson.

Less than three minutes after that, Brian Holzinger got a breakaway on Brodeur and his shot got through the goalie's pads to tie it up at 2. It was Holzinger's second goal in two nights. However, Holzinger had to leave in the second period with a separated shoulder. The initial report on Holzinger is that he will be out for over a week.

"I thought Brian was supplying some good speed for us, so we had to change the lines around and that affected our play, said Sabres' coach Lindy Ruff."

Maxim Afinogenov made a classic move in the second period to score his 11th of the season. However, Patrik Elias tied it up with just under 2 minutes remaining in the period and the game was tied at 3-3.

The Sabres had numerous chances in the second period and failed to convert. The Sabres had a couple breakaways and hit the post a number of times.

"I got lucky in that second period," Brodeur said. "I was laughing at myself. They hit posts, shot the puck behind me and I was swimming out there for a while."

The Devils broke the deadlock 12:41 into the third period, after Randy McKay fed the puck to Bobby Holik for a shot from above the left circle just as Jay Pandolfo was crossing in front of Sabres goalie Dwayne Roloson. Roloson did not see the shot and slammed his goalie stick against the crossbar after the Devils took the lead for good. At that point, hundreds of fans got up from their seats and left, feeling that the Sabres had no chance of coming back.

"I picked up the puck and I opened up moving toward the boards," said Holik. "The way the goalie reacts, he moves towards me. That's why I shot it across. I wasn't aware of the screen. You try to shoot it where he is not. I don't think he saw it until it was in the back of the net."

After dominating the game in the first two periods, the Sabres were now on the short end of the stick. Buffalo outshot the Devils 24-17 in the first two periods, but could only must 4 shots on goal in the third. The Devils reverted to their neutral zone trap and forced the Sabres to dump and chase. The result was a bitter pill for Sabres' fans to swallow.

Two minutes after scoring what turned out to be the winning goal, Hokik slammed into Roloson in an obvious goalie interference. The play continued, however, and Alexei Zhitnik put his hand on the puck to get it out of the crease. Instead of stopping the play for the interference, the Devils were given the penalty shot. Both Ruff and Roloson were furious over the call, but to little avail.

Petr Sykora took the puck at center ice and skated in on Rollie. Sykora faked going right and then went left on Roloson before slipping the puck through his pads.

"I was surprised how calm I was," said Sykora. "I didn't feel any pressure. Just like practice. This wasn't a move I use. I just saw an opening."

Scott Gomez, who is battling Afinogenov for NHL Rookie of the Year honors, got an empty netter at the 19:37 of the third period to end the scoring.

Brodeur kept the Devils in the game in the first two periods. He made 25 saves in the game, as compared to Roloson's 21 stops.

"Brodeur did what Hasek has done for us at times," Ruff said. "If you don't bury your opportunities, they'll come back to haunt you."

The Devils were pleased with winning back-to-back games.

"This tells us what we already know," said Holik. "When this team wants to win, we can win. This wasn't our best game, but we turned it up in the third period."

"We played well in the third period," Devils coach Robbie Ftorek said. "Marty (Brodeur) played well throughout, so we were able to come away with a win."

Meanwhile, the Sabres are still scratching their heads wondering what they have to do to win a game. The season is almost at the halfway mark and the Sabres are in ninth place.

"There's a ton of work left," said Ruff. "We have one fortunate thing on our side, and that's we have other teams stumbling right along with us. It's the only break we're getting right now. The thing we have to concentrate on now is putting a gap between us and one of those teams. There are times you don't know what to expect. We challenged ourselves to come and play well against a good team. We let it all hang out."

For two periods, the Sabres were able to get penetration into the Devils' zone with their superior speed. But when the Devils closed off that avenue, all the Sabres could do was to shoot the puck in every time they had a chance. As for the hitting game, it was almost nonexistent for Buffalo.

"It gets frustrating," Michael Peca said. "It's been an up and down year for us, some guys personally and as a whole collectively. We just haven't been the consistent team we should be."

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