Sabres hang on for 4-3 victory over Atlanta
By Rick Anderson
Sunday, November 21, 1999

The Buffalo Sabres were breathing a little easier after posting a 4-3 win over the Atlanta Thrashers last night to sweep the home-and-home series with the expansion team. The Sabres took a big 3-0 lead a quarter of the way through the second period and had to hang on to dear life as the Atlanta Thrashers stormed back with two quick goals late in the game.

With Michael Peca in the penalty box serving a double minor for high sticking, the Thrashers pulled their goalie to have a two man advantage in the last four minutes of the game. The scene got even more chilling as four of the Sabres lost their sticks including goalie Martin Biron. After Biron made a nice save and seemed to have the puck covered, Ray Ferraro came into the crease and batted away at the puck until it went behind Biron. Biron protested the goal, saying that the play should have been whistled dead, but it was to no avail. Twenty-one seconds later, Gord Murphy put a shot behind Biron and the Thrashers got to within one. There was wild and furious action in the Sabres zone after that goal, but Atlanta couldn't tie it up and the Sabres had their second straight victory.

Per Svartvadet tries in vain to hold onto Vaclav Varada

Asked to describe the situation when the Thrashers pulled their goalie when on the power play with over four minutes remaining and four Sabres had lost their sticks, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said jokingly, "That was a sticky situation. We had one guy passing his stick around to three guys. There was a point when we had a forward handing his stick to a defensemen and a defenseman handing his stick to the goaltender. It was bizarre in that sense that we could lose so many sticks on one play."

The Sabres opened the scoring when they Wayne Primeau got in front of Atlanta goalie Scott Langkow and tipped James Patrick's shot from the right point and the puck sailed past Langkow's catching glove and into the net to put the Sabres up 1-0.

Then the Thrasher's Nelson Emerson took his stick and slashed Geoff Sanderson in the ear and got a five-minute penalty along with a game misconduct for the infraction. The Sabres took advantage of that by scoring two seconds before the penalty was over. Alexei Zhitnik took a long shot and Primeau batted it down in mid-air. The puck took a nose-dive and bounced between Langkow's pads and into the net.

"Alexei (Zhitnik) made a good shot and I just deflected it," said Primeau. " The goalie didn't expect it. He kind of jumped up in the air and it went down between his five hole."

Primeau was also involved in the Sabres third goal which came at 4:52 of the second period. While on the power play, Cory Sarich skated in from the right point and took a shot that glanced off Primeau's skate and it went to Stu Barnes standing in the crease. Barnes wacked at the puck, it went in and out of the net, so he slammed it in the net once more for good measure.

"He did a lot out there," Barnes said of Primeau. "He made some great screens in front."

"I could take that every night," Ruff said of Primeau's effort. "He did a good job for us on the front end and the power play. I thought his last two games have been some of his best hockey. Both goals were just the result of getting the puck to the net and having somebody there. He did a good job screening it and tipping it. The first goal was a very good tip and the other one he got was pretty good hand-eye coordination too."

Matt Johnson scored on a wrist shot at 8:52 of the second period to end Biron's shutout streak at 4 periods. With 5:20 left in the third, Brian Holzinger gave Buffalo a 4-1 lead, but then Peca took that 4 minute major and the Thrashers' coach Curt Fraser decided to pull Langkow with around 4 minutes left in the game. The dramatic finish left Sabres' fans on the edges of their seats, but the final result was all that mattered.

"We were shorthanded for 11 minutes (10:03) in the first period," said Fraser. "That's a pretty tough way to play a hockey game. We put ourselves behind all the time, and that makes it tough."

The game was extremely physical as was to be expected following the slugfest the night before. Cory Sarich stood up Matt Johnson with a huge check up against the boards and Johnson tried to go after him, but some Sabres intervened.

"We just wanted to play physical," said Johnson. "We're not as fortunate to be as skilled as the Sabres, so we have to make up for it in other ways."

About Cory Sarich's play, Ruff said, "I thought Cory played a very strong game. Cory has been a very good defenseman throughout his stay here. Very consistent. You can see that we used him in a lot of different situations."

The Sabres had a rough two nights of physical action and were completely spent at the end of the night.

"We said before the weekend we wanted to have six strong periods," said Barnes. "We had two strong games. It's nice to get the four points. We knew that team was going to come up an battle hard."

"When the game got to 3-0 and in the second period we took four penalties in a row we lost all the momentum we had," said Ruff. "That was really the turning point of the game. It just seemed to burn out the six penalty killers we used, those guys didn't have much after that. Atlanta basically took over the game from that point and we were kind of hanging on."

When asked about Primeau's ice time being increased, after being in his dog house for awhile, Ruff said, "That operates with almost every player. We've had some players struggle, some guys have taken their turns getting out of the lineup - he's been one of them. He's producing now, he's getting more ice time, he's getting more key ice time. He's doing a good job in front of the net on the power play. I think the one thing that stands out on our power play is that if we don't have a big guy in front of the net, we move it around pretty good but we usually don't score. The key to our power play is for Varada or Primeau in front of the net and getting the shot on net."

Primeau, who got the first two Sabres goals on tip-ins and had a three point night and has been scouted by many teams as of late who may be interested in acquiring him in a trade made a statement against the Thrashers.

"There is no doubt I would like to stay in Buffalo," said Primeau. "It's one of those things where you have to make a career decision. Do you want to take a step forward or be a fourth-line guy your whole career? You have to keep working hard."

"It's been a difficult season so far", Primeau continued. "I felt great coming into camp. It's just one of those things where the numbers game plays into effect. We've got some great players here with Michael (Peca), Curtis (Brown) and obviously Brian (Holzinger) and it takes a little away from my ice time. I'm just glad they gave me the opportunity to tonight. I drive and enjoy standing in front of the net on the power play and I'm just glad I could get a couple of deflections."

"We got off track there for a little while and I think maybe we got a little overconfident." Primeau said about the Sabres recent slump. "I don't think we expected the teams we played the last few games with Tampa and then Florida (to beat us). I think that if we can get back to playing our game and playing everybody it definitely helps."

The players realize that they have to get Primeau more involved in mixing it up in front of the net.

"Look at (his) frame," said Brown. "He's the biggest guy we have up front. When you stick a big guy like that on the power play, it's an asset. He's got a good set of hands, and he's tough to move. I was happy to see him score a couple goals."

Maxim Afinogenov got two more assists in this game and had numerous chances. Ruff said that he had a couple chances that he could have scored on.

When questioned about the difference between when Afinogenov was sent down to Rochester and now, Ruff said, "Just his overall game (has improved). Positioning-wise, just to respect where he's at in his own end. Defensively, I don't know if he really played the type of system we're playing. The strong side winger has to stay on the wall and sometimes you're going to get hit. But you've got to be there for support. I think he's learned how we play from going down there. I think the other thing that stands out is that in training camp all he wanted to do is stick-handle and never shot. Now he's shooting. I guess down in Rochester all they told him, and I told him a couple times tonight, ‘just shoot the puck.' You can see one night he had six shots and he scored some nice goals because he shot the puck. Just the ability to start shooting and his confidence has been the big difference."

The Sabres have a stretch of home games that could help turn the tide for the team. They play 9 of their next 11 games at home, starting with the Capitals and the Blues this week.

"We're starting a pretty good stretch here," Ruff said. "We've got quite a few home games. Once again we've fought our way back to almost .500. This should set us up to have a pretty good run. The schedule is in our favor now, we've played very well at home. I think that's six in a row at home for us, this could get our season going again for us."

Ruff is a little off on that account. The Sabres play two at home this week against Washington (Wednesday) and St. Louis (Friday) before taking off for Tampa for a game next Sunday. Then they play home games against Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the Rangers before going to Toronto on December 6.

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