SWEET REVENGE - SABRES HAVE THEIR WAY WITH THE STARS
By Rick Anderson
Thursday, November 4, 1999
To the Buffalo Sabres, this was their Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Sabres completely dominated play right from the get-go in beating the Stanley Cup champions 3-1 in Dallas. The Sabres came out of their cocoons and displayed life for the first time and played their best game this season .
This was a Reunion in the Lone Star State last night as the Buffalo Sabres met the Dallas Stars for the first time since that controversial "no goal" ended the Stanley Cup Finals last June. Both teams have been plagued by injuries and have not gotten off to good starts so far this season. But in the only meeting of the regular season between the two finalists, the Sabres wanted to make their statement. That is exactly what happened as the Sabres dominated play from start to finish.
"I felt really comfortable after making the first save against Brett Hull on his one-timer," said Biron. "I only had to face 19 shots tonight because the guys played extremely well in front of me. It was the perfect road win."
"I felt better tonight than in that first game," Biron reflected about when he allowed 3 goals against the Hurricanes. I felt a step behind in that game. Tonight I felt confident, and the guys played great in front of me. When they play like that in front of me, it makes it easy for a goalie."
All the talk in Buffalo this summer after the Stars beat the Sabres on Hull's controversial goal was about how the team was denied a legitimate chance to win or lose the Stanley Cup. Because the on ice officials refused to go upstairs for a video replay of that goal, the fans felt the team was robbed of the opportunity of playing a Game 7. The fans may now be claiming that this game replaces the "official" Game 7, but not the players or coaches.
"Playing well against them in the playoffs gave us confidence," Buffalo captain Michael Peca said. "That carried over to tonight. Revenge has nothing to do with it. We just needed a win on the road against anybody."
"I can't say that there is any revenge left over from last year, perhaps there was a little motivation, but our main concern is getting ourselves straightened out this year," said Lindy Ruff after the game. "We did an excellent job preventing the odd-man rush, we were able to get a defenseman back in good shape, we were able to clear the puck and give Marty a lot of protection."
The Dallas Stars opened the scoring at the 6:52 mark of the first period when Mike Keane got a huge rebound off a shot by Sergei Zubov and ripped it past a handcuffed Martin Biron. The Sabres ended their powerplay drought at 0-17 when Curtis Brown backhanded a pass from the left corner to Michal Grosek out in front and Grosek one-timed it past Belfour to tie the game at one.
The goal of the night occurred when the Sabres were short handed in the third period. Darryl Sydor made a horrendous mistake when he went behind his net to start a rush. He passed it back to a phantom Star and Michael Peca was there instead to grab it. He did a wrap-around the net and Belfour stopped it, but Dixon Ward charged in and tipped it up over Belfour's shoulder top shelf where Ken Hitchcock hides the Stanley Cup from Ruff.
"When you make the big error, you're going to give up big goals," said Dallas Stars coach Ken Hitchcock. "That third goal took us right out of the game."
"There's a good feeling, but for a different reason," said Ward. "It was important for us to establish something on the road. They gave us a battle, but we got the game. That gives us a good feeling and allows us to build on our confidence."
The intensity of play by the Sabres was the highest of the season. Buffalo came out storming after the Keane goal and didn't let up from there on, including when they were shorthanded. Players like Mike Peca and Alexei Zhitnik had by far their best games of the season, and rookie defenseman Cory Sarich, just called up from Rochester, provided plenty of open-ice hits on Stars players trying to enter the Buffalo zone.
Ed Belfour played outstanding at the other end, making 21 saves on 24 shots. Many of those shot were glorious scoring opportunities for the Sabres, and if Belfour were off his game, the Sabres could have easily scored 6 this night.
"Each and every guy has to look in the mirror and realize that they have to play better," said Belfour afterwards. "We can't use injuries as excuses. We have to make up for the people that are missing and we are not doing that."
"It is not a case of lack of effort because everybody is working hard. We got beat by a solid club," said Keane. "We know teams are going to be more prepared to play us and we are certainly not getting the job done right now."
"We have not had much success in this building in past regular seasons," said Peca. "We played well in here in the Stanley Cup last season and I think that gave us a little confidence. "Every line played well and our only lapse came at the start of the second period."
The Sabres stood up and made a statement that they weren't going to get pushed around in this game. Jamie Langenbrunner charged into Biron after he made a save and chopped at Biron with his stick. Biron got up and pushed his blocker into Langenbrunner's face and that resulted in Langenbrunner punching the Sabres goalie in the face with a couple of shots. Immediately, the Sabres pounced on Langenbrunner in protection of their rookie goalie. Brian Holzinger was the first to dive on the Star instigator. The Zhitnik made the second tackle and the two forced Langenbrunner to the ice behind the net. The two Sabres pounded away at him until the refs separated the three. Langenbrunner skated to the penalty box bleeding profusely from above his right eye.
The Sabres didn't have too much time to celebrate as they had to immediately board a plane for their trip to Chicago. The Sabres hope to record their second straight road victory tonight in the windy city.
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Martin Biron, who beat Dallas last year in Buffalo 2-1, had his most impressive game since then in allowing only one to get past him. It was Biron whom the spotlight was on this night. Biron, after letting in the first goal, settled down and played as well as he did a year ago against the Stars. He made 18 stops and was quick with his catching glove on several occasions. He has now won three of his last games (one was in relief of Hasek against Florida when Dominik was injured). With Hasek out for much of the season with his a tear in his right groin muscle, the workload falls on the 22-year old goalie's shoulders.
Michal Grosek onetimes it past Eddie Belfour
The Sabres took the lead for good when Jason Woolley got his first goal of the season and his first since he scored in Game One of the SCF in Dallas last June. Vaclav Varada scooped up the puck at the Sabres blue line and flew into the Dallas zone. He passed it over to Peca, who shot it in front of the net. Woolley came in and blasted a screen shot that Belfour had no chance of seeing or stopping.
Curtis Brown knocks down Mike Modano
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