LIGHTNING STRIKES IN THE NAME OF GROSEK
By Rick Anderson
Monday, November 29, 1999

All the calls were going against the Sabres, as were most of the breaks. But somehow, the Sabres prevailed last night in an exciting 3-2 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Lightning when Michal Grosek scored with 2:26 gone in the sudden death stanza. Jay McKee started the play by passing to Grosek near the boards on the right side. Grosek then proceeded to skate towards the side of the net and flipped a pass he thought would go to Stu Barnes. The puck however hit Lightning defenseman Ben Clymer's left skate and deflected into the net past Tampa goalie Dan Cloutier. The goal capped a physical contest and the Sabres got some revenge for their last trip to Tampa when they lost 4-2.

"It was a lucky goal," Grosek said after the game. "Actually, I tried to pass it to Stu Barnes. I saw him within a fraction of me, it hit the guy's skate and went in the net. It's never a bad play to just put it in front of the net."

"Michal made a great play," said Barnes of Grosek's attempted pass to him. "He held on to the puck for a long time before he threw it over toward me."

The Sabres, still smarting from their embarrassing loss to St. Louis on Friday, came out with every intention of leaving Tampa with two points. The Sabres started out in the first period completely dominating the Lightning, but could only get one goal behind Cloutier as Richard Smehlik scored his first of the season at the 3:36 mark with a long shot from the point that somehow got through the goalie. After that, the Sabres got tagged with a few penalties that stopped their momentum. Even so, the Sabres outshot the Lightning 9-5 in the first period.

"I thought we played nasty and played ugly ... that's how you're going to win (on the road)," said Lindy Ruff. "We fought the elements all night. We didn't get many calls, but we fought off all the calls that went against us."

The Lightning tied the score at 7:27 of the second period when Robert Petrovicky put one past Dwayne Roloson, who was playing his first game since before Dominik Hasek got injured. Petrovicky got a nice pass form Mike Sillinger and poked it past Roloson.

The Sabres thought they took the lead when Cory Sarich scored with the back of the net tilted up in the air, but the referee ruled no goal. Moments later, Maxim Afinogenov broke on a 2-on-1 down the left boards and fired a scorcher between Cloutier and the near post with a little over a minute remaining in the second period.

The Lightning had more power play chances in the third period, but could not capitalize until former Sabre Petr Svoboda shot one from the point that hit the crossbar and bounced off Roloson's back and into the net to tie the game up. Roloson was screened on the play, so he didn't have too much of a chance to stop Svoboda's blast.

"I didn't see it," Roloson said of the shot. "It hit Brian's (Holzinger) stick, hit the crossbar, hit me in the back and went in."

"I thought we played a good game on defense" said Roloson, who played a strong game and finished making 23 saves. "We took away their scoring chances. It was a low-scoring game, like it should be. The defense came through and we fought and battled all night long."

In overtime, the Lightning were taking it to the Sabres when McKee got possession of the puck and flipped it to Grosek along the left boards. He drove down the ice towards the goal line, fending off the defenseman like Sam Gash did on his touchdown run for the Bills yesterday. Then Grosek veered towards the net and when he got 2 yards from the goal, he sent a pass to Barnes, who was storming straight to the crease. Clymer in his attempt to defend against Barnes, got his skate in the path of the puck and it ricocheted right into the net for the winning goal.

"We caught some breaks and generated some chances in overtime. It's a big win, a really big win for us," Ruff said. "Our other wins in overtime have been a result of speed that we have. You're going to have chances in overtime. With 4-on-4, teams are going to go for it, especially when it is East vs. West."

Lightning coach Steve Ludzik said,"When we have the opportunity, we've got to take care of the puck. We just didn't get the job done with the power play. We've got to do better."

The game was extremely physical as Rhett Warrener and McKee came out hitting like late last season when the two were called "the Bruise Brothers." Michael Peca and Darcy Tucker went at it in the fight of the night. Tucker kept hitting Peca with his elbow pad which he was holding and Peca was getting beat up until he took control of the fight and clocked Tucker with a few punches to his head. Finally Peca was able to force Tucker to the ice and the officials intervene. Later on in the game, Tucker cross-checked Peca right in the face, forcing Peca to leave the game to get 30 stitches.

Referee Fawcett, who lives in Tampa, seemed to favor the home team as he let Tampa infractions slide while calling the slightest encroachment the Sabres made. Both Brian Holzinger and Afinogenov, along with Peca, got clipped in the face with high sticks and no call was made. Rob Ray got a penalty when he was punched and didn't fight back. Sarich's goal was disallowed even though a similar goal by Atlanta a few weeks ago was allowed when the back of the net was in the air.

By winning, the Sabres once again reach the .500 mark. However, the last two times they reached this milestone, they proceeded to lose the next time out. Buffalo is also unbeaten in the new overtime format of 4-on-4 with a record of 3-0-2.

"It definitely helps," said Ruff about the Sabres speed helping win when going 4-on-4 in overtime. "In our other overtime wins, speed definitely played a role. Geoff Sanderson was in on both of those goals, and he is one of our fastest players. You are going to trade chances in overtime when it's four on four."

"It's fun," added Grosek about the new OT format. "When you get it down low, if you beat one guy you are wide open. You can make plays. That's a big plus."

The Sabres return home for a game against Matthew Barnaby and the Pittsburgh Penguins tomorrow night and then they face the Philadelphia Flyers at Marine Midland Arena two days later.

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