Flyers pounce on Sabres for overtime win
By Rick Anderson
February 13, 2000

Martin Biron did all he could. But in the end it was not enough as the Philadelphia Flyers were able to penetrate his barrier and score in overtime to beat the Sabres 3-2. It took a mighty effort to beat Biron as he stopped 39 shots and some of his saves were unbelievable.

Curtis Brown and Keith Primeau watch play from ice level after collision

John LeClair beat Biron with a wrap-around to end a fantastic performance by the Sabres rookie goalie. Seems that the Flyers have been in a scoring slump as of later and have had a hard time putting the puck behind enemy goalies despite outshooting the opposition in their last 12 straight games. Leave it to the Sabres to help another team out of a slump.

"It was a real good play by Simon,"said LeClair after the game. "He did a good job of holding the puck at his feet. It got away from me once but I got it back and was able to get it in front."

"LeClair is one of the best in the league on the wraparound plays short side like that," Biron said. "He has great hands, he plays the puck as well on his backhand as on his forehand. I thought I had everything covered. I was down on my knees, my stick was where the puck was and he cut in with his heel and put it through the opening."

"We can't be snake-bitten forever," asserted LeClair. "That's our feeling here. We wanted to put as many shots on the net as possible. We had a lot of good scoring chances. Three of them was enough to win."

"The way things have been going, to win a game like that after we feel we outplayed a team, it's a big relief."

Biron had to be at his best in the third period when the Flyers outshot Buffalo 18-4. But it was his save in the second period that was certainly of highlight variety. Biron went out of the crease and into the corner to retrieve the puck when it suddenly bounced out to Andy Delmore who had a gapping empty net in front of him. Delmore let go of a wrist shot that was heading for the net when suddenly Biron dove towards the net head first and swung his stick at the projectile. He hit the puck in mid-air and out of harm's way to the utter dismay of Delmore and the rest of the Flyers. At that point, they wish Dominik Hasek had started. The save has to go down as one of the best of the season for any goaltender.

"As soon as I saw him leave the net a couple of our guys forced him pretty good and the puck squirted out," Delmore commented about the play. "I saw a lot of open net and I thought I got pretty good wood on it, but he came flying across to make a spectacular save."

"The guys came over to me and told me it was a great save"Biron said, "but you can't sit down and say, 'That's an unbelievable save. My job is done.' You don't want that thought to cross your mind. You have to keep working hard." The Sabres had a glorious opportunity to go ahead early in Saturday's game when Boucher also got out of position and Vladimir Tsyplakov got a shot off on the open net but Eric Desjardins made the save to keep the game scoreless.

With John Vanbiesbrouck sitting out, Boucher made 21 saves and had to be spectacular at times himself.

"We have to continue this every night," said Boucher. "It's awfully tough when you get so many chances, especially at home. Everybody expects you to win at home and their goalie was making Hasek-like saves."

Referee Van Massenhoven let the game turn ugly when he allowed both teams to take liberties that normally would result in penalties. Keith Primeau had to leave the game early when he cracked his left rib. One of the most blatant non-calls was when Jay McKee received a vicious elbow and was down on the ice for a couple minutes.

Dan McGillis of the Flyers takes Rhett Warrener's feet out from under him

The Sabres opened the scoring right after LeClair returned from serving a boarding penalty. The Sabres power play was clicking and they just missed several chances to score when LeClair came back on the ice. Geoff Sanderson picked up a rebound and took a wrist shot that got past Flyers' rookie Brian Boucher with 6:21 remaining in the first period.

The Sabres got their power play going in full swing again when Stu Barnes got past Chris Therien and ripped off a slap shot on the short-side that got past a screened Boucher at the 6:37 mark of the second period.

With the way Biron was playing and Buffalo up 2-0, it appeared as if the Sabres had the game under control.

"He made some big saves in the first period and we tried to build off that," Michael Peca said. "Similar to when Dom makes the big saves. It does a lot to have a kid come in when Dom is not playing and play like that."

The Sabres were not able to hold the Flyers off the scoreboard as Dan McGillis got a power play goal halfway through the second period when his slap shot got past Biron.

The Sabres got a chance to regain a two goal lead when Craig Berube went off for two minutes, but the Flyers killed it and came back to tie the game when the Sabres could not get the puck out of their zone and Daymond Langkow rifled a slap shot from the right point past Biron who was screened on the play.

Then in the third period, the Flyers staged an all-out attack on Biron. They peppered him with 18 shots, but the Sabres' candidate for NHL Rookie of the Year stood tall and blocked them all. The Flyers forechecked the Sabres off their game and forced them dump the puck out of their zone time after time.

"Their big guys were right in front of the net all the time,"said Biron. "It's tough on everybody."

Desjardins got a slap shot on Biron with just under five minutes remaining and he kicked it out. The Flyers had another glorious chance when Keith Jones had an open side to shoot at but his shot went wide from the left faceoff circle with a little over a minute left. Nineteen seconds later, LeClair got a blast off from the left circle but Biron made a pad save.

John LeClair celebrates after scoring goal to beat the Sabres in overtime

During the overtime, both teams pressed for the sudden win. Sanderson missed a good chance to score on one occasion as did Jason Woolley.

Then came the winner, as LeClair got the puck behind Biron and did his quick wrap-around to end the Sabres three-game road trip on a losing note. However, they did get five of the possible six points during the trip and are within striking distance of eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

"We have to make up ground on the Rangers and Pittsburgh," said Lindy Ruff. "It would have been good to get six points on this road trip, but five out of six is still a great effort. We're disappointed about losing the game, but it's not really a loss. We have to get away from that mentality. We need points. There was an extra point that was up for grabs"

The Sabres play another afternoon game on Sunday when they take on the Edmonton Oilers at Marine Midland Arena. The game is a 2:05 start and Dominik Hasek is a likely candidate to be in goal.

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