Trial by Fire - Biron comes up short
By Rick Anderson
Sunday, October 31, 1999

This was his chance. Martin Biron was given the start last night against the suddenly hot Boston Bruins and did his utmost keep the rubber out of the net. However, it was the goalie at the other end of the rink who sparkled and helped his team post a 3-0 win over the Sabres.

When Martin Biron was called up by the Sabres last week to replace a benched Dominik Hasek, he felt he had to take advantage of the big opportunity. Sabres coach Lindy Ruff had told him that it was his job to lose. Well, Biron made 17 saves and helped the Sabres beat Carolina last week 7-3. However, Ruff immediately started Hasek in the next game against Ottawa and the Sabres lost that one 4-0. When Hasek suddenly went down with a groin injury this Friday, Biron was thrust into the lineup and helped Buffalo post a dramatic comeback victory over Florida in overtime.

During this game, Biron would feel the real heat of playing in the National Hockey League. The Boston Bruins have been on fire as of late and they continued their ways as they blistered Biron with 34 shots.

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The first period will be one Biron may never forget. The Bruins swarmed abound the young goaltender like a multitude of angry bees. Biron looked solid as he made several outstanding saves, but then Alexei Zhitnik took a penalty and that got the B's swarming. Biron stopped a shot by Kyle McLaren, but the Sabres could not clear the puck and McLaren took another shot from the point. With four players forming a screen in front of Biron, the shot got past the Sabres goalie and put the Bruins on top for good. After that goal, the Bruins kept the pressure on the upstart Sabres goalie. He made a nice save of Joe Thornton who got a shot off from right in front. Zhitnik couldn't control the puck and coughed it up. Sergei Samsonov pounced on the loose puck and scored the Bruins second goal only 46 seconds after McLaren's goal.

"They got off to a really good start," said Biron. "They came at us hard and got a couple goals. It's really tough to come back against them."

The scored stayed 2-0 for most of the second period. But then Brian Holzinger was penalized and the Bruins once more displayed their fervent powerplay attack. The Sabres had great difficulty clearing the puck and right after Holzinger got back on the ice, the Bruins tallied again. Biron went down to his knees to block a shot while Thornton passed to Samsonov and he flipped the puck over the goalie's shoulder and just under the crossbar to up the Bruins lead to 3-0.

"Marty was nervous," Ruff said. "He went down too early a couple times and played way too cautiously at first. I told him he's got to be more aggressive." "Joe (Thornton) and I are still getting to know each other," said Samsonov about his teammate helping him score two goals. "We have fun playing together and are becoming aware of each other's tendencies. We are playing very well deep down in the offensive zone. We are crowding the net and making it real tough for the goaltender to see our shots. I got two good passes tonight and I was quick with them."

At the other end of the ice, John Grahame posed as a large ominous figure for the Sabres. The goalie who faced Biron in the Calder Cup finals last season was fighting for a roster spot as Byron Dafoe had just signed a three-year deal the day before. Grahame is knew he was battling Robbie Tallas for the backup goaltender spot with the Bruins. Last June against Biron, Grahame helped his Providence team defeat the Rochester Americans to win the Calder Cup. Last night, Grahame was outstanding as he denied the Sabres any chance of making a comeback. He stopped 26 Sabres shots on goal and a few of them were phenomenal.

"Grahame looks a little unorthodox at times but he sure does cover a lot of net," Ruff said after the game. "I imagine Robbie (Tallas) would have liked to have seen a few of those go in."

When Bruins coach Pat Burns was asked whether Dafoe would be in the nets during the Bruins next game against the Devils, he said, "If the game were tomorrow, definitely not. But we have an off day tomorrow and I'll think about it."

"I definitely don't want to go down," Grahame said. "I want to play. I've gotten a taste of it up here and I have proved I deserve to be here. ... Three years is a long time to wait for Byron's contract to run out."

"Certainly it was a team shutout," Grahame continued. "Usually after the game I go over the goals that I let in. Tonight I don't have any goals to go over, so that's nice. I just saw the puck real well tonight. All the angles out there looked real good to me."

Meanwhile, Biron was licking his wounds after suffering his first loss of the season. He came in to relieve Hasek after the All-Star goalie reinjured his groin when Florida scored the other night to take a 2-1 lead with only 33 seconds to go. The Sabres rallied and tied the game with 18 seconds remaining and then won in overtime with only 5.5 ticks left on the clock. Biron got credit for that victory and the first game he started against Carolina. Now he must deal with the taste of defeat.

"We know Dominik is going to be out a while," said Biron. "Dominik can't win every game. It is up to the other 20 players on this team to come together."

"This is our third shutout and in one other game we had one other goal," Ruff said. "The way we are playing, especially on the power play, tells me one thing -- not enough people on our team are paying the price. I talked about it before the game and reminded them afterwards. We have to start paying a price. If you are going to score a goal, you have to score some ugly ones, too."

The Bruins started off the season just like the Sabres and didn't have a victory in their first nine games. But they have been on a tear since, going 4-0-1.

"We were not playing poorly before, it is just that now we are playing with more confidence and passion," said Burns. "People have been saying that we are finally on a winning streak and it's about time, but that is not the way I look at it," Burns added. "We have actually been playing pretty well for some time, the only difference is now we have a lot more confidence."

Sabres defenseman Rhett Warrener left the game with a left shoulder injury early in the first period. That, along with the absence of Hasek could hurt the Sabres chances of turning their early season misfortunes around.

About the status of Hasek, Ruff said, "Dom is definitely out. It looks like it's going to be a situation where we're looking at weeks, not a matter of days. I'm really not sure myself what the problem is. But it is a groin injury. We'll be up to speed on that early next week." In explaining how Hasek got injured, Ruff said, "He was going from post to post and you could see it gave out on him. You could see it buckle. It was a perfect shot, but normally Dom will get across. This time it just quit on him." The Sabres goaltending duties will be shared by Biron and Dwayne Roloson. Roloson has been scratched from the lineup ever since Biron came up from Rochester last week to replace Hasek in his one game benching.

"We went through this stretch last season," said Ruff about the Sabres having to do with their star goalie in the nets. "The players have confidence they can win games without Dom in the lineup. We just have to move forward."

"We still have two goaltenders who are capable of winning," Holzinger said. "I guess we have to pull together even tighter now. I don't think you've seen our best 60 minutes. Now would be a good time to start."

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