Barrasso dominates Sabres in 4-1 defeat
By Rick Anderson
Wednesday, December 1, 1999

Tom Barrasso came back to his former stomping grounds and made the statement that he's not ready to be put out to pasture just yet. He was the prime factor in Pittsburgh's 4-1 win over the Sabres. Barrasso, playing like his days of old, made numerous sensational saves to keep the Sabres at bay. The Sabres outshot the Pens 33-21, but it was Barrasso who was the star of the game, kicking out shots from every direction and showing the form that won him rookie of the year when he first broke in with the Sabres back in 1983-84.

In the second period, Barrasso had to be especially sharp as he stopped 15 pucks from entering the net. In the third period, there was one time when all the Sabres forwards jumped in on top of Barrasso after he stopped Dixon Ward's shot with his arm. Everyone was poking at the puck that laid in the crease and decided to just pile on the former Sabres goalie. It looked like a highlight of the Bills sacking Drew Bledsoe the other day.

Jaromir Jagr checks Richard Smehlik

Dixon Ward is going to be having nightmares about Tom Barrasso. One time he got a breakaway on Barrasso when the Sabres were shorthanded and he hit the post. In the third period, he had another breakaway on Barrasso and shot it high over the glass.

"I don't know if I'm frustrated," Ward said . "Maybe dumbfounded as to why it's not going in."

"I was very impressed," Ward said about Barrasso's play. "He stood in there strong and made some real good saves in traffic. We should have had four or five goals tonight."

The Sabres have got to learn not to take penalties against the Penguins, especially two at once. At 17:19 of the first period, Brian Holzinger got called for holding. Then Vaclav Varada really put the Sabres in a hole when he got a boarding penalty at the same time, putting the Sabres two men short against a powerful Penguin powerplay. While two men up, Jamir Jagr scored his twentieth with a blast from the right point that beat Martin Biron. He scored with only 31 seconds gone in the penalty. Then with the Sabres one man short, the Penguins got their second straight powerplay tally when German Titov shot from the middle of the left faceoff circle. There was only one second left in Holzinger's penalty when Titov scored. Titov also had an assist on Jagr's goal. The disheartening part of the whole scenario is that the Sabres outplayed the Penguins up until they were two men short.

"They just took bad penalties, and that cost them the game," Jagr said. "They were a lot better team than us five-on-five, but the power play helped us a lot, and Tommy Barrasso played an excellent game. I would say he won the game for us, plus the power play."

At the end of the period, Matthew Barnaby tormented the Sabres as only he knows how and he tangled with Rhett Warrener.

Grosek took the puck behind Tom Barrasso, and wrapped around in front of the former Sabres goalie and put it in for the Sabres first goal at the 4:36 mark of the second period. After that goal, the two goalies staged a goaltending clinic, with Barrasso showing the young kid how to protect the crease and beyond.

In the third period, the Sabres once again put plenty of pressure on Barrasso and couldn't puncture his force field he seemed to have around the net. Then the Penguins got another two man advantage when Warrener got a cross checking penalty at 12:33 of the period and 52 seconds later Michael Peca took another stupid third period penalty when he ran over Barrasso. Peca did the same in the St. Louis game last Friday to kill any chances the Sabres had of coming back on them. Tonight's lack of self discipline resulted in another Penguin powerplay goal when Alexei Kovalev scored from the top of the right faceoff circle and blasted it past Biron. He scored the goal using Barnaby's stick that Matthew lent him after his had broken his stick.

"Titov wasn't there, so I couldn't take his stick. Barnaby was standing there, I just took it," said Kovalev. "I tried not to shoot real hard (because his stick is so weak), just throw it at the net. Breaks happen. I need those breaks. There's not many of them around."

The Penguins scored their only even strength goal of the game when Robert Lang score with a wrist shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle at 17:47 of the period.

"You don't see anybody hit a goaltender in this league right now and not get a penalty called, so it might not have been the smartest play," Barrasso said about Peca's hit. "The unwritten rule is you don't hit the goalies, and usually when you do bad things happen."

"That's a difficult play (goalie interference), obviously it was frustration," said Ruff. "The first one was just as bad, the Varada hit from behind after the penalty was being called. We took the puck out of our hands when you start killing 5-on-3 because we can't force, we can't set up, they dictate play. Obviously Jagr's first shot was a bullet, I don't think anybody would have stopped that."

"We haven't been a real good power-play team on the road," said Penguins coach Kevin Constantine. "That's a big part of winning on the road. When it's 5-on-5, the home team can match lines. You've got to take advantage of your power plays. Tonight, we did, and that's the main reason we won."

After that final, Rob Ray and Barnaby tangled in a spirited fight. When the refs finally broke them up, Barnaby stuck his tongue out at Ray and made a couple of animalistic noises to spur him on. As he left the ice, Barnaby raised his arms and clenched his hands together as if he had just won the heavy weight championship.

"You don't like being embarrassed in your own building," Ray said. "The game is over and he continues to put on that little act that's embarrassing me and challenging me."

During the pregame warmups, Jagr spotted Barnaby talking with a couple Sabres. He decided to draw the line in the sand (or ice) right then. "You don't play for them anymore," Jagr shouted to Barnaby. "They don't want you."

"If you saw some of the stuff we went through when we lived together, whatever we would do on the ice would be minimal," Ray said about the turbulent times he and Barnaby spent together in the past. "On the ice, there are guys to break things up if it gets out of control." Ray reminisced about when they were roommates and he ended up throwing Matthew out the window.

"Needless to say," Ray laughed, "there were a lot of security deposits that weren't returned."

"I consider Rob my best friend," Barnaby said. "Unfortunately, Peca cheap-shotted our goalie and we had to do something. It's part of the game. The next time I'm in town, I hope Rob and I have a beer and supper, and then maybe go at each other again."

About the game, Barnaby said, "We wanted to stop the way we were playing on the road. The way we played in the second and third, we played a lot better."

The final analysis of this game is that the Sabres got frustrated, took a lot of mindless penalties that cost them dearly, especially when they found themselves two men short twice in this game. Once again, the Sabres cannot break the .500 mark, losing for the third straight time after reaching even keel. Pittsburgh scored three times on five powerplays and Lindy Ruff has to go back to the drawing board to get his penalty killing crew back to snuff.

"There's different things you can do," Ruff formulated. "You can sit players out. You can bench them. You can yell and scream at them. I did a little bit of both. It's something that can't happen any more. Obviously 9 penalties in Tampa Bay, in that game I thought a lot weren't very good calls. But tonight, it was undisciplined play."

The Sabres get right back at it on tomorrow night against another team from Pennsylvania when they take on the Flyers.

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