Sabres blast Senators with a flurry of goals
By Rick Anderson
January 9, 2000
The Sabres helped ease some of the pain that Bills fans were suffering when they beat the Ottawa Senators in a 7-4 shootout. The Buffalo Bills who had lost their Wild Card game to the Tennessee Titans earlier in the day on a bizarre kickoff return now know the feeling the Sabres had when they were eliminated out of the Stanley Cup Finals on a controversial Brett Hull goal. Now the Bills have their "no lateral" to take its place along side the Sabres "no goal."
Miroslav Satan recorded a hat trick and notched two assists to give him his highest point total in his career. It was Satan's third hat trick in the NHL. This past week, Miro light the lamp five times along with his six assists.
Other Sabres to get in on the fun were Curtis Brown (1 goal, 2 assists), and Erik Rasmussen, Stu Barnes and Michal Grosek who all scored one apiece.
"It's a huge victory," Satan said."We wanted to start the second half of the season like this."
Ron Tugnutt Ottawa's goalie was besieged by goals. He let in five goals on 19 shots. In came Patrick Lalime for the third period with Ottawa behind 5-3. Tugnutt was yanked in his two previous games also.
"He wasn't playing well and he felt the pressure," said Ottawa coach Jacques Martin. "I decided to change the gasoline. We weren't sharp mentally. They just outworked us."
"I don't think we should blame Ron at all," Prospal said. "This team was desperate because they had lost three in a row and they are fighting for a playoff spot."
Even though the Sabres have been slumping lately, Buffalo has been able to score much more frequently. Against Toronto on New Year's night, the Sabres raked the Leafs with 8 goals. They scored 4 against Atlanta and 3 on Martin Brodeur of the Devils. With Dominik Hasek in goal, most of those games would have been victories.
"If you look at us in the new year, we've done a better job of taking advantage of our opportunities," said Lindy Ruff. "Why are they going in now? Who knows, but we played well offensively. Every line contributed."
Daniel Alfredsson, Vinnie Prospal, Patrick Traverse and Shaun Van Allen got the Ottawa goals..
"It's not the way we want to finish off a home stretch before a long road trip,"said Alfredsson. "It was very frustrating. They have a really quick team."
The shootout started out like a typical Buffalo-Ottawa game. The last time the two met on December 8, it ended up in a scoreless tie. Jason Woolley broke that continuing scoreless streak when he found Satan going in alone on Tugnutt. Satan pulled a magnificent move from his bag of tricks as he deked Tugnutt to record his 20th of the year. Being the game that marked mid-season, Satan is once again on track for at least a 40-goal season.
The Senators got right back in it with a one-timer from Prospal as he took a great pass from McEachern and shot it past Martin Biron
Satan and Grosek went on a two-on-one break. Satan passed it over to Grosek who put it top shelf and the Sabres were on top 2-1.
For the second straight game, the Sabres had to stop a penalty shot. Dwayne Roloson was beaten in the game against the Devils. Now it was Biron's turn. Alfredsson was elected to take the penalty shot, but Biron was able to stop it with his pads. Alfredsson made up for it by scoring a little while later.
Satan then scored his 21st of the season, but Traverse tied it up again three minutes later. Thirteen seconds after that, Rasmussen scored off a rebound. The floodgates were open!
The Sabres continued to improve on their powerplay as Satan notched his hat trick after Stu Barnes passed to him as he was all alone to the goalie's left. Buffalo was now up 5-3. But they weren't through yet!
The Sabres power play came through again as Brown and Barnes lit the lamp. Van Allen got the game's final goal half way through the third period. Whew! The two teams almost totaled what the Bills got against the Titans.
"It was an uncharacteristic game for both teams," Buffalo's Mike Peca said. "The line that was supposed to score did, while everybody else played well and did the grunt work."
The Sabres now have four days off after completing a grueling schedule that had them play five games in 8 days. Their next game is in Boston on Thursday.
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"I don't know what's been happening lately," Satan said. "I've been trying as hard as I can, the puck's just going in now. It was just one of those nights. Most of the things we did ended up in the net. I'd like to see more games like that. That's unrealistic but I'm thankful for this one."
Miroslav Satan battles with Ottawa's Wade Redden for the puck
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