Deja Vu, Series Tied at Two

Remember when Ryan Miller had a dominant 35 save shutout to steal game one? Well, his performance on Wednesday night may have even been better as the Sabres tied the series at two game apiece.

It was a must win for Buffalo and they came through. Even though it looked like the Flyers were going to tie it, the Sabres found a way to survive, with Miller doing most of the work.

Miller stopped all 32 shots en route to the Sabres’ second 1-0 victory of the series.

The Sabres looked like the dominant team for most of the third period, but found themselves trapped in their own end for the last few minutes of the first. However, it was Buffalo who would get on the board first with a goal halfway into the opening period.

The play started with Tyler Ennis behind the net, who made a pass to Rob Niedermayer, who in turn, set up Jason Pominville for the first goal of the game.

The Sabres came close to scoring again with two shots off the goal post.

The second period was scoreless, but the Flyers were putting pressure on in the offensive zone, and they were going after Ryan Miller as much as they could. Miller took a penalty for punching Daniel Carcillo in the face.

As Patrick Kaleta went over to check Mike Richards, Richards stuck his elbow up and hit Kaleta in the face. A five minute major was called and the Sabres headed to the third period on the power play.

However, the Sabres failed to score on it. They struggled to even get past the blue line.

Briere was left all alone in front of Miller, but the Sabres’ goaltender gloved the puck right off of Briere’s stick to keep Philly off the board.

The Flyers pulled their goaltender with well over a minute left in the game, but Miller was a brick wall in net as he stole game four to tie the series at two.

Both teams had numerous opportunities to score, including Thomas Vanek on a 2-on-1, but Kaleta lost an edge and went crashing into the net to end that opportunity.

Tyler Ennis had a chance of his own with a breakaway, but was stopped by the right pad of Boucher.

With the win, it confirms that there will be a game six, which will be in Buffalo on Easter Sunday at 3 p.m.

2 COMMENTS

Kevin Freiheit
Kevin Freiheit
I founded Buffalo Hockey Central in 2008 and have poured hours and hours into this site. Luckily, we have a great team of writers and designers who have helped keep this up and running despite a ton of out-of-pocket costs. We do this because we enjoy it, and we're desperate to see the Sabres win the Cup someday, but they have to make the playoffs first.
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