Woolley gets revenge against Nashville with OT goal
By Rick Anderson
February 11, 2000

The Sabres got a little revenge for that "Home run throwback" lateral by Frank Wycheck which ended the Buffalo Bills season when the Tennessee Titans beat the Bills in the wild card playoffs in January. That was the last time a Buffalo sports team visited Music City and that turned into a disaster for the Bills. The Sabres had a wild and Woolley game of their own Thursday as Jason Woolley pinched in on a shot from Miroslav Satan and put it behind the Nashville goalie to score the winner in overtime.

With the score tied 1-1 and just under a minute left in the overtime, Woolley skated from his usual defensive spot and got in front of Satan's long shot from the right point. Woolley redirected the puck past Nashville goalie Tomas Vokoun and into the net with 51.8 seconds left in overtime. The many Sabres fans in attendance went wild as did the Sabres on the ice celebrating Buffalo's 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Of Woolley's 40 career goals, the defenseman has had seven of them win games.

Jason Woolley celebrates with Miroslav Satan after scoring game winning goal in overtime

"Jason is a guy who just is very confident in himself," said Michael Peca. "He doesn't become flustered in important situations."

"Miro is so good. He has great vision and I thought he might get me the puck a little earlier. I slid off my man and I guess I got more open than I thought I was, but Miro made a real nice play," said Woolley.

The win was the Sabres third in a row and second straight in their current three game road trip.

"We're trying to get back in the playoff race" said Satan. "We'll take any points we can get."

The game was a defensive struggle except for a time span of 1 minute and 7 seconds of the second period. That's when the Sabres scored first and Nashville tallied a minute later.

Vaclav Varada put the Sabres up 1-0 at the 11:50 mark in the second period when his wrist shot beat Vokoun in the top corner. It was only Varada's fourth goal of the season.

Ville Peltonen got that one right back when he got a pass from Scott Walker, skated around Dominik Hasek and put a back hand shot past the Buffalo goalie, ending Hasek's shutout bid and scoreless streak at 103 minutes and 41 seconds.

That was all the scoring until Woolley finished the game in dynamic fashion. One of the Predator fans in the stands was Frank Wycheck himself. It was only fitting that the man who ruined the Bills season experience some payback.

"It's a tough way to lose in overtime," said Predators' center Greg Johnson. "That's the way it goes. We had our chances. We played well, we battled, we ran into a great goaltender."

Now Nashville knows just a little how the Bills sudden playoff defeat must have felt.

Both teams had great opportunities to score before the overtime. Vitali Yachmenev got a slap shot off on Hasek from right out in front, but was stopped cold by the Sabres 35-year old veteran. Right after that save, former Sabre Bill Houlder shot was also stopped by Hasek.

In the third, Hasek stopped Vitali Yachmenev on a slap shot from point-blank range with 6:20 left and Bill Houlder from the right point moments later.

The Predators could have put this one away in overtime when Drake Berehowsky's shot hit the post. The Sabres also hit a lot of posts in this game. But with a little over a minute left in the overtime, Ruff called a timeout and told his defensemen that they should go for the win and pinch in if they had the opportunity. That's when Woolley knew he had the green light and was going to make the most of it.

"I was a lot more open than I thought I would be," said Woolley. "Miro put the puck right on my stick and I put it in. If Lindy didn't say, `Go for the win,' we would have played a lot more passive. I think I have a new spot on the power play in front of the net instead of at the point."

"I saw him in front of the net,"said Satan. "I just threw the puck toward the net. We're trying to get back into the playoff race."

"When you need an offensive spark or a big goal, a few guys step to the plate,"said Erik Rasmussen. "We're do or die for the playoffs. We're playing like we have to play -- hard and gritty."

Hasek made his second straight start and had much more pressure than he experienced in the 2-0 shutout over the Colorado Avalanche two nights earlier. The Dominator made 27 saves and on a few of them he had to test his groin by making his famous diving-flopping saves. However, there were times that Hasek appeared to have a hard time getting back up after making some of his saves. He also lost his stick on several occasions. A couple time he was so slow in getting back into position that the Predators could have scored if the Sabres defense hadn't picked up the puck first.

Hasek did not practice between the Colorado and Nashville games. On Wednesday, he skipped the practice and only rode the stationary bicycle. His starting against the Predators was a game-time decision by Sabres coach Lindy Ruff. Now after going through a more vigorous workout against the Predators, it will be interesting to see if Hasek experienced any kind of setback in his recovery from his groin injury. After his first game back against the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Hasek came up sore the next day and had to miss the next game plus the All-Star game. After that, he announced that he might only be able to play once a week. After playing in two games in three nights, Hasek may be able to determine just how much he can contribute the rest of the season.

"I like to be on the ice," Hasek said after the game. "I like to stop the puck, and feel this winning feeling."

"The situation is completely different than in the beginning of the season," Hasek said when asked about if he was still retiring at the end of the season. I was out for a long time. The situation is a little bit different and we'll see."

The Sabres play a Saturday afternoon game against the Flyers next. That will be a big test and Ruff will have to make a long hard decision on who should be between the pipes against the rough and tumble Flyers.

"We have to look at this next game in Philly as a chance to keep our streak going," Ruff said. "We can't be happy with just the two wins. We can still have a lot more success."

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