BARNABY COMES BACK TO HAUNT SABRES
By Rick Anderson
Wednesday, November 17, 1999
Matthew Barnaby came back to haunt his former teammates last night as he scored the winning goal on a breakaway against Sabres goalie Martin Biron. The Pittsburgh Penguins extended the Sabres losing streak to three as they took a commanding 3-0 lead in the first period and held on to win 3-2.
Biron who allowed four goal in his last outing against Tampa Bay on Friday, got stung for three goals in a period of 3 minutes and 4 seconds. Barnaby's goal was the back breaker for the Sabres. Since being traded from Buffalo in exchange for Stu Barnes, Barnaby now has a total of 3 goals for the Penguins and two of them have come at the expense of the Sabres.
"I've practiced against him for five years," Barnaby said. "and I knew he was looking for me to go to my backhand, so I was looking to go to the five-hole the whole way. It's always great to get one against your old team. It's nice if the goal eventually becomes the game-winner. It's an exciting time. It's really emotional to play against your old team."
"Barnaby skated well to get his break and they made a couple of good passes on the other ones," said Biron. "But part of it was me, I've got to do better than that, I've got to make the saves. You can't afford to get behind 3-0 on the road."
Right after Barnaby scored, Jaromir Jagr left the game with a thigh injury. That ended his scoring streak where he has recorded a point in each of the Penguins 15 games. He has 33 points so far this season and is on a pace to get 180 this year if he remains healthy. Originally it was reported that he had a groin injury, but it turned out to be in the thigh area just below his right groin. Jagr indicated the pain is not nearly as painful as it was during the playoffs last spring, when he could barely skate while sitting out four games of the Penguins' first-round upset of New Jersey.
"I'm glad it's not the groin like before," said Jagr. "I think I'm going to play (on Thursday), but I don't know yet. It's getting a lot better."
"He tried to catch up to Kip Miller on a two-on-one break and he hurt his groin," said Penguins coach Kevin Constantine. "It was a nice test for our team to lose its captain. He's a big part of our offense, so at least we spotted ourselves some goals. Jaromir's carried us all year. Tonight, it was the other 19 guys."
"Anytime your star player goes down, you got to pick it up," said Barnaby. "The game unfolds a little differently with him not on. We had a solid effort."
Lindy Ruff was not a happy camper after his team's third straight defeat, all on the road.
"We made four of five mistakes there," Ruff said. "That eliminates you from winning the hockey game. We talked about the big mistakes heading into the game and then we give up a breakaway we should never give up. We played too soft in the defensive zone and they took advantage. I think they scored the three goals when Jagr was off, so he wasn't a factor in the game."
The first two Pittsburgh goals were scored by German Titov and Alexei Kovalev. After Biron was pulled, Roloson shut out the Penguins the rest of the way.
"This is not a league where you can win very often giving the other team a two- or three-goal lead on the road," said Ruff.
"I've seen him (Straka) make that play before," Satan said. "I tried to cut off the pass and I got lucky. It came right to me and it was open ice all the way in."
Brian Holzinger got his second goal of the season at 16:27 of the second period, but the Sabres could not put anything else past Aubin the rest of the way. Aubin made 19 saves and ruined any chance the Sabres have of at least splitting their current 4 game road trip. They play the first of their home-and-home series against Atlanta this Friday in Atlanta.
The Sabres are just 2-8-1 on the road and clearly need the goaltending to be strong like they had the past five years with Dominik Hasek in the nets. Buffalo had rallied around Biron in the first couple weeks, protecting him from the barrage that Hasek usually had to face. But sooner or later, one knew that protective shield would disintegrate. Now Biron knows what it feels like to be left alone to the wolves like Hasek was all those years. Absence make the heart grow fonder.
And then there's the power play. What power play? The Sabres went 0 for 3 last night in that regards against the the third worst team in the NHL coming into last night's game. Can you believe that the Sabres are just 8-for-80 while on the power play this season?
Once again Ruff has his work cut out for him to straighten the Sabres ship. After going winless in their first seven games, the Sabres went 7 and 2. After the two big victories over Dallas and Boston, the team seemed at last to be well on its way to a successful season. Now they have slipped back to where they were at the start of the season, in a prolonged slump.
Barnaby scores on a breakaway - WATCH NOW
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Barnaby took a lead pass from Alexei Kovalev and skated in all alone on the rookie Biron. When "the Rat" got in on Biron, instead of making a fake, he simply slid the puck through a small opening in Biron's pads. The goal came at the 13:16 mark of the first period and that was enough for Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. Biron was out and Dwayne Roloson was in for the remainder of the game.
Alexei Kovalev takes down
Maxim Afinogenov
The Sabres came right back after Barnaby's goal when Miroslav Satan stole the puck from Martin Straka near center ice when the Sabres were shorthanded and beat Jean-Sebastien Aubin when he faked him out and went to Aubin's right to score.
Miroslav Satan gets breakaway and scores on Jean-Sebastien Aubin
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