Flames burn Sabres 3-1
By Rick Anderson
January 4, 2002

The Flames' Dave Lowry trips up Buffalo's Richard Smehlik in second period action. Buffalo lost 3-1.

[AP Photo/Adrian Wyld]

The Buffalo Sabres completed their first half of the 2001-02 season the way they started it, with a bitter defeat. The Sabres spotted the Calgary Flames three goals before they finally woke up and got some momentum in the third period. The Flames held off the Sabres efforts with Calgary Roman Turek playing spectacular in goal and they beat Buffalo 3-1.

Rob Ray set a career record of 3,000 penalty minutes in the game when he took on former Sabre Bob Boughner. If it can be counted as one, that was probably the highlight of the game.

Once again the Sabres goaltending let them down. Martin Biron was horrid in goal as he let in 2 goals in the first five minutes of the game. Toni Lydman got the first one with a long shot from the point that got by Biron on the far side. Replays show that he was not screened. It was typical of the soft goals that the struggling Sabres goalie has been giving up.

Just a little over 2 minutes later, the Flames had a two man advantage and scored when Craig Conroy forced Biron to do a dive to get into position when the Flames center passed over to Marc Savard, who put it under the diving Biron. At that point, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff should have pulled Biron. Oh, wait, the backup was Bob Essensa. Forget that!

Alexei Zhitnik made a foolish pass to Richard Smehlik right in front of Biron. The puck caromed off Smehlik's stick right onto the stick of Conroy, who banged it home.

The Sabres came back in the third period with a goal by Taylor Pyatt, who deflected a shot from the point by Zhitnik.

The Sabres find themselves dead last in their division and have only two teams below them in the 15 team Eastern Conference. With the season half over, Buffalo is going to have to have a tremendous winning streak if they even want a chance of making the playoffs.

Read Sunday's The Sabres Week in Review for a in-depth look into this past week for the Sabres.

ESPN's Game Recap for more game details.

     HOME           SEASON'S RESULTS      SABRE TALK MESSAGE BOARD      NEWSROOM      99 PLAYOFFS    
THE PLAYERS      STATISTICS      SCHEDULE      PROSPECTS      LIVE GAME RADIO      HISTORY      TEAM INFO     
PHOTO GALLERY     MULTIMEDIA      SABRES POLL      TROPHY CASE      LINKS      THE STAFF      E-MAIL SABRESWORD

Copyright © 2002 Sabres Central, all rights reserved