Archives for May 6, 2007

'Top forwards Chris Drury and Daniel Briere had multi-point games, as did Hecht — who scored his first two goals of the playoffs — and Dainius Zubrus with two assists. Four of their five goals came on deflections.'

'Jochen Hecht. He was the best player on the ice. His first goal was a nice wrister over the glove of Henrik Lundqvist. His second goal was one of the prettiest deflections you'll ever see. He seemed to love working with Zubrus and Drury. Hopefully the slump is over and he can get back to playing great hockey.'

'Thanks to a second-period offensive outburst, Buffalo took control of the game.'

'"We tried the same things and talked about the same things," said Ruff of the Sabres mode of attack against the Rangers. "Pucks it holes. We didn't have a lot of luck our previous games. Some guys made some nice shots and we got some good redirections."'

'Michael Nylander's second goal of the game on a power play at 17:09 cut the lead to 5-4 and made for a thrilling final 2:51. The Rangers came hard at Buffalo goaltender Ryan Miller over the closing moments, firing three quality shots to finish the game with a 36-29 advantage over the Sabres. In the end, however, Miller proved to be the difference for his team, just as he was throughout the series.'

'The Sabres came out scoring two quick goals in the second as Dmitri Kalinin would tie it just a minute and a half in, then Jason Pominville made it 2-1 just under three minutes into the second. New York would not be down long as just two minutes later Paul Mara scored a power play goal on a shot from the point to make it 2-2. Then the Sabres would take the lead right back again as Jochen Hecht would convert on an odd man rush snapping a wrist shot over Lundqvist’s glove. Then on the power play Daniel Briere found Chris Drury in front to make it 4-2 heading to the third period.'

'Drury had a goal and assist in the Sabres' four-goal second period that erased an early deficit and sent Buffalo to a 5-4 victory Sunday over the Rangers in Game 6. Dmitri Kalinin, Jason Pominville and Jochen Hecht joined Drury in the offensive onslaught that lasted 9:46.'

'Daniel Briere donated three assists and Ryan Miller recorded 32 saves for Buffalo, which gave up a goal to Michael Nylander with less than three minutes remaining and was forced to fend off a furious surge in the closing moments to capture the win.'

‘“We’ve been challenged a few times this year and every time we’ve responded with some really big games,” Briere said. “So once again we were able to do that. It just makes us believe we can respond to big challenges and we’re not afraid and we’re not a team that’s going to collapse when the game’s on the line, when the series is on the line.”’

‘“It’s a little different for me here this year than it was last year,” he said in HSBC Arena before flying to New York. “It’s tough if you don’t play the power play now in these games. Most games are decided by the power play, like [Friday] night, so there’s not much to say about it. If you don’t play, you don’t play. It’s tough to get the points on the board.”’