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.”

ika Noronen sat on the bench for most of Thursday’s pre-game skate, biding his time before finally getting some shots in late in practice.

There are only two nets on a sheet of ice, and Martin Biron and Ryan Miller were filling them.

At least Noronen had his equipment on. He was resigned to watching yet another game from the press box Thursday night when his red-hot Buffalo Sabres took on the Toronto Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre.

Such is life these days for the 26-year-old Finn, a spare part waiting patiently while Sabres GM Darcy Regier decides whether or not to pull the trigger on a deal that would alleviate a crowded crease.

“It’s a bad situation,” Noronen said after the skate. “I’m just hoping they can figure out something and make a move. It’s not good for anybody, especially for me because I’m not even in the lineup and I’m not playing. It’s almost Jan. 1 and I just want something to happen because I want to play this game again.”

Noronen, who has appeared in only 168 minutes of action this season, would have to clear waivers if the Sabres tried to sneak him to Rochester of the AHL, and you can bet he’d be snatched up in a New York minute if that happened. So he continues to wait.

Miller carried the bulk of the action in October before getting hurt, and Biron took over in November and December and didn’t miss a beat as the Sabres rocketed up the Eastern Conference standings.

So Noronen is trying to keep a good attitude, especially because he likes both goalies that are playing ahead of him.

“Yeah, those are good guys, I’m really happy for them right now,” he said. “They’re playing well and I have to be happy for them. But at the same time, I can’t be happy for myself. I’m just hoping something will happen.”

Biron, 28, would have probably welcomed a trade in October, when he sat on the bench and watched the 25-year-old Miller start the first 10 games of the season before finally getting in on Oct. 29 following Miller’s thumb injury.

“The thing is, at the beginning of the season in the first month, it was a totally different situation than it was now,” said Biron, who got the nod for Thursday’s game. “I hadn’t played any games.”

After a rough start, he lost four straight, Biron won 16 of his next 20 games, including winning 13 straight starts. Now, despite all the interest from other GMs, he’s having too much fun to leave.

“Can I be part of this? Definitely,” said Biron. “Do I want to be having a bigger part than I was having earlier this season? Yes. But time will tell what will happen. All I can say is that it’s been good, this team is awesome. This is as much fun as I’ve been having playing with this organization.

“I was here when we went into bankruptcy, I was here when we went 15 games under .500 with nobody in the stands. We saw people doing the wave at a game recently. When’s the last time you saw the wave in Buffalo?”

On other teams, this could be a problem, two No. 1 goalies competing for ice time. But Miller and Biron get along and understand the situation.

Miller was in net for Monday’s 6-3 win over the New York Islanders. Biron got the start Thursday night. Head coach Lindy Ruff hasn’t told either goalie what the plan is going forward.

“He hasn’t mentioned a whole lot,” said Miller. “He’s the kind of guy that goes for feel. We have both stepped up this season and played big games so you just have to be ready when you’re tapped on the shoulder. That’s been my approach pretty much for the last four years. Just be ready to play any time and support the other guy when he’s in there.

“And I think all three of us, Mika included, we have a great relationship. We talk a lot, encourage each other. I think it’s unique. You don’t often find three guys with great personalities who get along.”

Regier has gone on record saying he didn’t think he’d carry all three goalies all season long. A move has to be made at some point. But Miller’s injury changed the landscape for a while.

Now Regier wants to make sure Miller is 100 per cent and rediscovers the same groove and confidence that saw him win six of his first eight starts in October. Since his return, Miller has gone 3-0-0 and allowed only five goals in those games.

“I’m trying to come off it (the injury) but not put too much pressure on myself,” said Miller. “Because Marty has been playing well, the team has been playing well.”

Why is Biron likely the odd man out? Because he’s got more trade value than Noronen, having played in the league longer, and because he’s earning $2.1 million US this season, more than Miller ($501,600) and Noronen ($665,000).

And Miller can’t become an unrestricted free agent until July 2008 at the earliest, while Biron can do so one year earlier.

Biron insists he won’t let it become a distraction. If he ends up in Vancouver, Colorado or Edmonton or anywhere else, he’ll accept it. But for now he’s happy as a clam.

“I’ve always said things that are meant to happen will happen,” said Biron. “I was patient at the beginning of the season and working hard and had good talks with Darcy and Lindy and then I got a chance to play. When you have an opportunity, you have to be able to make the best out of it. If you just pout and get off the ice (in practice) when everybody else is still working, when you get that opportunity it’s going to blow by you.

“That’s what keeps you going, not the trade rumours, not your name being mentioned here and there, it’s the chance to play and win some games. That’s what matters.”

There are two Buffalo Sabres out with abdominal injuries. Both skated Wednesday. One was smiling. One was dejected.

The happy one - J.P. Dumont - has already had surgery. The frustrated one - Daniel Briere - could find out today that he’ll be next.

Briere traveled with the team to Toronto on Wednesday night, and today he’ll go to Montreal to meet again with Dr. David Mulder, the Canadiens’ head physician and medical director of the McGill Sports Medicine Centre. Briere and Dumont met with him earlier this month, when Mulder recommended sports hernia surgery for Dumont and rest for Briere.

Rest and an anti-inflammatory injection haven’t helped, so Briere is going back for a re-evaluation that may include a recommendation for surgery.

“It’s a possibility,” Briere said Wednesday at the Amherst Pepsi Center. “That’s why we’re going to see Dr. Mulder tomorrow. Maybe he’ll be able to help us out with exactly what the problem is.

“The frustrating part is just not knowing what’s going on, not knowing what exactly it is and why it’s not getting any better.”

Briere will miss his sixth straight game tonight against the Maple Leafs. He hasn’t played since Dec. 16 against Pittsburgh and has missed 13 of the past 16 games.

“It’s just the same. It’s just not going away. It’s not improving,” Briere said. “It hasn’t been worse than it was since the Pittsburgh game, but it’s not getting better, either, so that’s the frustrating side.”

Dumont enjoyed his first extended skate since having surgery Dec. 8. He took the ice in a sweat suit after his teammates had finished practicing and skated circles and took slap shots. He still isn’t scheduled to return until after February’s Olympic break.

“It feels too good,” he said. “I want to try to do too much.”

Mika Noronen knows he’s not going to be dressing for a game anytime soon, but it was obvious at practice the third goaltender is still trying to have a little fun.

Players had short sprints at the end of the session, and Noronen dived across the blue line to win the goalie race. He thrust his arms toward the sky while lying on his back, prompting fellow goalies Martin Biron and Ryan Miller to tackle and pounce on him when he got to his skates.

“It hasn’t been easy,” coach Lindy Ruff said, “but I think that he’s trying to get the work done and trying to stay sharp, trying to allow whoever’s starting to get the majority of the ice time, and then he’ll get his ice time either before or after.”

The Sabres entered Wednesday’s games with the third-ranked power play at 22 percent. Ruff said one reason for the success is the team’s depth.

“The fact that we have two power-play units that we use hand-in-hand, we don’t mind throwing either one out first or second, and it has made it a little bit easier to get through some of those (penalty-filled) games,” he said.

Defenseman Dmitri Kalinin will miss his eighth straight game with a broken right pinkie. . . . The Sabres will hold a team autograph session 30 minutes following Sunday’s 5 p.m. game against the Florida Panthers in HSBC Arena. There will be a limit of one autograph per player during the nearly one-hour session. Players will be seated at tables throughout the 100, 200 and 300 levels.

This is the night Victoriaville, Syracuse and Kitchener drop a peg. Nothing against those towns and the rivalries their teams have, but when the Buffalo Sabres’ rookies finish their game tonight, they’ll likely know what big-time antagonism is all about.

The Sabres make the season’s first visit to Toronto, so it’ll also be the first visit for the all-rookie line of Paul Gaustad, Jason Pominville and Daniel Paille. They had a rollicking evening Monday in HSBC Arena, playing a major role in taking out the New York Islanders.

But Toronto is different, ever since the legendary Punch Imlach drove down the Queen Elizabeth Way in 1970 to build the Sabres and returned to Maple Leaf Gardens a few months later to crush his old team, 7-2. It’s one thing to tussle with Alexei Yashin, but when Darcy Tucker is braining you with a helmet and 20,000 die-hards are screaming for more, you know you’ve arrived.

“I know they’re a rival, so I think that’s why I’m going to be geared up for it,” Gaustad said Wednesday after practice in the Amherst Pepsi Center. “It’s going to be a fun time playing against these guys. It’s going to be a lot of hard work, but I think it’s going to be worth it.”

Gaustad already has had a small taste of the rivalry. He flattened Leafs captain Mats Sundin and subsequently fought Wade Belak in the preseason meeting in the Air Canada Centre. Pominville also played in that game, while Paille is taking the Leafs’ ice for the first time.

“I was fortunate enough to play an exhibition game there, so I’ve seen the place before, I know how it is,” Pominville said. “It’s sold out every night, and the fans are really into it. It’s just a great place to play, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Most Canadians relish their first visit to Toronto and Montreal, and Sabres coach Lindy Ruff had a gleam in his eye Wednesday recalling his first visit. Paille is a little different. Though the Welland, Ont., native was captain of Canada’s 2004 world junior championships team, Monday’s 6-3 victory had bigger significance than tonight’s matchup.

“I think the first game in Buffalo was more special just because it’s closer to home for me,” he said. “But it’s the first Canadian game, and a lot of family of mine will be able to see it, so that’ll be a good feeling for me.

“When I was growing up I watched a couple games there, but I was never a fan.”

If he and his linemates play like they did against the Islanders, Toronto won’t be a fan of them. Their forechecking and puck possession forced the Isles to take a couple of penalties, and the ensuing power plays resulted in the game-tying and game-winning goals.

“I was very happy with their play,” Ruff said. “Great energy for us every time we threw them on the ice, and they’re smart players. They realize that they have to play the game a certain way, and I thought all three of them really had a good night for us and helped us win a hockey game.

“You stick a line out there - a so-called fourth line - we want them to play in the other end and make it tough for the opposition to get the puck away from them. That’s exactly what they did the other night.”