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Sabres Central

Patrick notches winning goal in victory over Tampa
By Rick Anderson
Wednesday, October 27, 1999

Dominik Hasek won his first game in six starts this season as the Sabres beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3. The Sabres took a big 2-0 lead after one, but the team and Hasek let down and let the Lightning take a 3-2 lead in the second period. The Sabres came back to tie on a goal by Curtis Brown. Hasek, after looking very shaky in the second, came back and looked dominant in the third period, especially in the closing seconds to preserve the win.

The Sabres came out as if they were going to blow the Lightning out of the building when Michal Grosek scored only 3:39 into the first period. His goal was assisted by Mike Peca, and Vaclav Varada. The Sabres kept the pressure on Tampa Bay the entire period and only some outstanding saves by Dan Cloutier kept the Lightning in the game. The Sabres outshot Tampa 12-4 in the first period and there were many opportunities where the Sabres could have scored and Cloutier denied them. The Sabres finally looked like the team that advanced to the Stanley Cup finals as they had many glorious opportunities. However, with only seconds left in the period, Geoff Sanderson broke in on Cloutier and put the shot on the goalie. Cloutier blocked it but Peca poked in the puck that just sitting inches from the goal line with only 5 ticks remaining on the clock.

"It was a game we had under control and were playing fairly well," said Lindy Ruff about the first period. "We created a lot offensively and we didn't give up anything."

In the second period, the Sabres continued to control the play, but Chris Gratton got an unassisted goal on Hasek as his long shot somehow got between the goalie's pads. That came at the 2:46 mark of the second period. Then less than 3 minutes later, Hasek allowed another soft goal when Stan Drulia scored on the fallen goalie who committed himself too early. The goal was a result of a terrible turnover by Alexei Zhitnik , but Hasek was down too early and Drulia flipped the puck over his pads. And then a little over a minute after that, Vincent Lecavalier scored a powerplay goal on Hasek and the fans were booing the future Hall-of-Fame goalie.

"I played hard the whole game. All of the sudden we make three, four mistakes in the second period," said Hasek after the game. "Fortunately we didn't give up goals in the third. I am glad we won the game, but I don't have a good feeling after a game like that. We faced a very average team in Tampa Bay. We should beat them in our building."

The Lightning 3-2 lead was short-lived as Curtis Brown slammed one home just 21 seconds after Lecavalier's goal to tie the game. Grosek and James Patrick assisted on the goal.

In the third period, Patrick picked off a the puck after Sergey Gusev attempted to clear the puck out of danger and got off a slap shot that beat Cloutier in the top right corner to put the Sabres in front 4-3 with only 5:13 remaining.

"Dixon (Ward) held onto it. I was wide-open, just shifting down a bit," Patrick said. "Honestly, I wouldn't normally be down that low. The coaches thought the defense was backing off too much. ... I knew I didn't have much time. I took it from my backhand to my forehand and honestly tried to get a shot on net. Luckily, I got it high enough."

That goal turned out to be the winner, but the Lightning gave Sabres fans a scare in the last twenty seconds of the game as they swarmed around Hasek, getting shot after shot off. The Dominator finally showed what made him the Vezina Trophy winner the past few years by standing tall in the barrage rubber that came his way. It was a wild flurry of action that came to a sudden halt when the horn signal the end of the game.

"The great thing about it is that five guys were throwing their bodies in front of the puck," said Patrick. "Those last 20 seconds couldn't go by fast enough."

Hasek improve his record to 1-4-1. Only having to face one shot during the first 3/4 of the first period, he allowed three soft goals on only four shots early in the second. In the game, the Sabres outshot the Lightning 27-18.

"This is not a case where we feel Dom has let us down," Patrick said. "We're not playing well enough to win. We don't deserve to be winning. That's the bottom line. . . . We know how much pride he has. We realize all he's done for all of us. We wanted to take the heat off and let him relax and play his game."

The Sabres play Florida at home on Friday and try to extend their winning streak to two.

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