Sabres Hockey

There is a long list of people who can take credit for the fact the Buffalo Sabres are still playing hockey.

Goaltender Ryan Miller can argue he belongs at the top of the list.

He outduelled counterpart Cam Ward of the Carolina Hurricanes and hung tough after a late goal to see his team win 2-1 in overtime last night.

Centre Daniel Brière can make the same argument. Stifled for much of the National Hockey League’s Eastern Conference final by the Hurricanes, Brière had the goal that mattered last night, the overtime winner, and he set up the Sabres’ other goal.

There are also five defencemen who can say they belong right behind Miller and Brière. Jay McKee, Toni Lydman, Brian Campbell, Rory Fitzpatrick and Doug Janik combined to play their tightest game of the series after Teppo Numminen’s comeback from a hip-flexor injury lasted only one period.

But all concerned said the same thing — this is a team of many heroes, one that has fought injury and disbelievers all season to stand one game away from the Stanley Cup final. Every time the Sabres were written off. The latest rally tied the best-of-seven conference final 3-3, with the deciding game tomorrow night in Raleigh, N.C.

“We were fired up,” Brière said shortly after he ended the game last night with his eighth goal of the playoffs. “We wanted to show people we were not a bunch of quitters.”The Sabres came out skating and hitting hard to start the game, and they took an early lead.

They came out much the same way in the fifth game of the series last Sunday, but managed to lose the game when their forwards were unable to capitalize on their opportunities.

The difference between last night’s game and the previous one is that the Sabres were much more physical.

Centre Adam Mair established that three minutes into the game when he laid Carolina defenceman Frantisek Kaberle flat on his back with a stiff bodycheck.

The other difference was Ward. The 22-year-old rookie goaltender went into the fifth game after the Hurricanes fell behind 3-1 and pulled them together for a come-from-behind-back win.

Last night, he kept them in the game from the start, although at the end, as Hurricanes head coach Peter Laviolette noted grimly, there were no heroes among his veteran teammates.

“They came out with their backs against the wall, they played a real sharp first period and we did not respond,” he said. “That was disappointing because we have a lot of veteran players in there.

“If it weren’t for Cam Ward in that first period, it would have been a lot worse. We had one of the youngest kids on the team being the best player. That’s disappointing.”

There was another factor, something a Buffalo sports fan will tell you has always been in short supply in this beleaguered city — luck.

In the irony of ironies, it was a referee’s call that brought good fortune to the Sabres. When Hurricanes centre Doug Weight was nailed for driving Jason Pominville into the boards in overtime, the Sabres’ power play finally clicked after squandering four previous opportunities.

Just before that call, any of the 18,695 fans at the HSBC Arena would have told you they were getting shafted yet again by the referees.

They vented their displeasure loud and long in the first period after a couple of calls they did not like.

This was not really the case, but it feeds into the city’s sense of injustice, just as its team unifies itself in a similar way against the adversity it faces from injuries and other misfortune.

“There’s a special bond right now in our dressing room,” Brière said. “Yeah, we like doing it for each other.”