THE HEAT IS ON
By Patrick Matthies, Pre-Game Correspondant
Thursday, June 17, 1999

The heat is on. Sorry, No pun intended, but the Sabres are in the oven. Whether they're done or not will be determined tonite, as they head into a scorcher of a game in Dallas. Another Pivotal game, woopie. There seems to be a lot of those this series. After game 4's performance, the Sabres may have new life in their veins.

Game 5. All Important. A 3-2 lead would put a severe choke hold on the Stars, But a 3-2 lead for the Stars could mean instant death, with game 6 tickets changing hands faster than stocks in the 1920's. What's gonna happen? Who's gonna win? Well, check out Rico's Pico's for that. I'm just gonna tell you what needs to be done.

What Dallas needs to do to win: Hope They Solve Dominik Hasek. He was the reason, he's been the reason, he'll be the reason. Does he score goals? Nope. Your Defense first system ain't gonna help you against him. Play Exteem defense, screw the hitting, just go get the puck. Pray Brett Hull is back in the Line-Up. A sniper could be good. Put the puck in the net when Dom's not there. Note Randy Cunneyworth is NOT a goalie.

What Buffalo Needs to do to win: Get more of those awesome scoring chances we all saw during game 4. Listen Real carefully when you score, Dallas will be silent, and somewhere over the Desert, Buffalo will be screaming. Play a good strong defense game, because Dominik can't stop everything. Give him some help. Go for the big hits, your still young, it's gonna pump you up to land one. Score more goals than Dallas.

Instead of just Dallas playing this like a game 7, look for both teams leaving everything on the Ice tonite. It's gonna be a Hell of a game. Go to the Arena to watch it. It's only $2.