For the second straight game, the Sabres collapsed in the third period after seemingly having the game in hand. On Friday night, the Sabres had a comfortable 4-2 lead halfway through the final period only to allow the Florida Panthers to tie it up. Saturday night, the Sabres were playing against the lowly (and yes I mean very low) Flyers in Philly. A sure win right? Not with these Sabres. They love to make it exciting at the end and work their way out of a hole to capture victory in the most glorious fashion.

The Sabres for their second straight night, forged ahead, lost the lead, but then won it quickly in overtime as they beat the Flyers 5-4 in under a quarter minute in overtime, just as they did against the Panthers. This marked the Sabres third straight overtime win and 9^th road victory in a row (a team record).

This brings us right back to the question on everyone’s minds these days: Just how much longer can the Sabres keep coming from behind and winning in overtime or a shootout? It seems like every game is Groundhog’s Day for the Sabres. They keep repeating the same kind of gutsy come-from-behind resiliency that even the Buffalo Bills of the early 90s couldn’t match. Game after game, the same heart-throbbing, on the edge of your seat last second goal by Buffalo to force overtime. Isn’t there some sort of natural law the Sabres seem to be breaking? This cannot go on forever, and the Sabres seem to know it. But they are having fun achieving feats that even Hollywood writers would not dare conjure up for their sports movies.

"It's amazing," said an euphoric Daniel Briere after the game about how the Sabres keep on making comeback after comeback. "I don't know how to explain it. We just have that confidence that when we get into overtime or it's late in the game, it doesn't matter if we're down by a goal or two. We believe we can win them all. Confidence is a big thing to have on your side, and that's the way we're playing."

It was more of the same Saturday night! The Sabres fans are even starting to get bored by the repeating theme of a last second goal to force overtime by a Sabres team playing desperation hockey. Enough already! The Sabres fans, and maybe even coach Lindy Ruff will be in their graves if this keeps up too much longer. The Sabres faithful must have aged 5 years the past 6 weeks alone.

On Friday night, it was Thomas Vanek who scored the game winner just 19 seconds into the overtime. Saturday night, Daniel Briere scored 21 seconds in. Both were powerplay goals.

It was Briere’s night to play Super Hero for the Sabres. He made a great shot in tying the game with just under 3 minutes to go, and then almost equaled Vanek’s quick score in overtime when he got a long shot off from the left circle that handcuffed Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki.

"Jason Pominville faked the shot, and it kind of froze their defense and their goaltender," described Briere. "I knew if I could keep it inside the post, I had a chance to find the back of the net."

Briere, who was awarded a $5 million contract by an arbitrator this summer, seems to finally be getting into his stride. It couldn’t come at a better time with the injury bug hitting the Sabres.

Marty Biron, making his third straight start and second since it was revealed that Ryan Miller has a lower body injury, was almost the goat in this one. He allowed two very questionable goals from far out that got the Flyers back into the game and gave them momentum. However, he made up for it late in the game with the Flyers up by one. With Dmitri Kalinin falling down, it gave the Flyers a 3-on-0 break and Biron was helpless as the three stormed in on the Sabres goalie. He stood tall and blocked the shot by Kyle Calder, giving the Sabres the chance to come back.

"I just wanted to make myself big," described Biron about the storming sea of Orange & Black rushing upon him. "It happened really fast. I just threw my blocker and my pad out there, and it hit my blocker."

Biron was confident that the Sabres were going to come back, even if he hadn’t played his best game by allowing two very lame goals.

"We weren't going to back down," insisted Biron. "We knew we had to respond to their physical play and really get in there. I think the fights sparked their team to come after us and play better."

The Sabres also got goals from Paul Gaustad (2^nd in 2 nights), Jason Pominville and Drew Stafford. It was Stafford’s first NHL goal. The 21 year old rookie who was called up from Rochester this week, has been impressive.

"I didn't really know what to do," Stafford talked about scoring his first goal in the big league. "It happened really fast. I didn't want to make myself look like an idiot when I'm celebrating, but I was pretty happy on the inside. I was happy to get that one over with so I can keep going, hopefully."

THE BOBBY CLARKE KILLERS

The Buffalo Sabres are hated in Philly. Not only did the Sabres humiliate the Flyers last spring in the playoffs, but their last game against the Flyers, a 9-1 thumping of the Orange & Black, resulted in the demise of long-time GM Bobby Clarke and head coach Ken Hitchcock.
The Flyers aimed to get a measure of revenge against the Sabres, and maybe they did. Coming back from being down 3-1, the Flyers surged to score 3 straight goals and take a surprising 4-3 lead over the best team in the East. However, once again the heroics of the Comeback Kids finished the Flyers. For the Flyers, in what was probably their best game in weeks, it was of little solace that they played the Sabres so close. A loss is a loss and they are still at the bottom of the league.

"I don't know if we lost or just ran out of time," said the new Flyers coach John Stevens. "We felt if we play like that every night, we're going to win a lot of hockey games. Is it something to build on? For me it is. That's supposed to be the best team in the league. We stood up for each other. We showed affection for the group, and I saw effort in areas that had been lacking. I was proud of the team effort."

Petr Nedved also saw more life out of this team than lately.

"I thought we had a good jump, and we didn't think out there," Nedved said. "We were reacting. Any time you think out there, you are one step behind a team like this and you end up playing in your own zone.

"I thought the whole team played very well and deserved a better fate, Nedved continued. The positive is we worked hard, and we can build on it."

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