Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Posted: 10:12 p.m.Updated: 11:50 p.m.
By Tim Panaccio
CSNPhilly.com
BOX SCORE
BUFFALO, N.Y.Danny Briere was stationary in the slot when the puck came to him from Matt Carle near the blue line.
No Sabre was within an area code of the Flyers lithe centerman. Briere cradled the puck, then went backhand-forehand and tried to lift a shot on goalie Ryan Miller.
It was a good chance, Briere said. You got to score on those chances. It was a good save by Ryan. Too much time to think sometimes and the fact that it was standstill, too.
It was the save of the night in Game 4 as Miller racked up his second shutout of the series, 1-0, allowing the Sabres to knot this Eastern Conference quarterfinal series at 2-2.
NHL
Game 5 is slated for Good Friday in South Philly.
Brieres shot with 8:53 left at HSBC Arena was the best opportunity among 32 Flyer shots.
Usually, were used to coming in with speed, moving your legs one way or the other, Briere said. I couldnt really make a move. I had no speed.
I tried to make a quick move and get it up. I couldnt go around him. I had to try and get it through him. Its one of those situations. I wish I could have it again.
Miller expected it.
It wasnt so much reaction as it was anticipation he was going to try to get it over me, Miller said.
Unlike Game 3, the Flyers were unable to consistently get traffic in front of Miller, though they dominated play from the second half of the middle period to the end.
The aside here was Buffalos nastinesssticks, punches, etc.throughout, especially at the end with raised sticks. Nathan Gerbe speared Kimmo Timonen after the buzzer as the teams formed a giant scrum along the boards.
It seems like some of their games seem to feel that a street fight is what gives them the best chance, Sean ODonnell said. Thats what the playoffs are sometimes. You can get a lot of pretend toughness out there because there is no fighting.
They seem to want to get in some shots and intimidation and for whatever reason they feel they can intimidate us and out-physical us.
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff changed all four of his lines and two of his three defensive pairs for this game to stave off going down 3-1 in the series. Now Buffalo has new life.
Penalties again weighed heavily. This was no different as Buffalo began the third period with a 4:57 power play with Mike Richards in the box with a five-minute major for elbowing Patrick Kaleta about the cage he is wearing to protect a broken nose.
Kaleta checked Richards hard into the Flyers bench at the end of the middle period.
I saw him take a couple hard strides at me and had to protect myself because they werent going to call anything. I had to protect myself out there, Richards said.
If that wasnt bad enough, the Flyers played the final two periods without Jeff Carter, who suffered an apparent right knee sprain late in the first period.
Though the Flyers penalty killers did superb work in killing off Richards major, it was an awful call, nonetheless.
He referee Francois St.Laurent wouldnt give me an explanation, said Richards, controlling his anger. When youre allowed to get away with murder out there and we get called on the Car Bomb Dan Carcillo, every time he is on the ice. Its frustrating. We have to battle through it.
Coach Peter Laviolette also said he felt Richards was getting run by Kaleta.
Hes got his arm up to defend, but I dont think that was the intention of it, Laviolette said. It was hardI didnt see any intent in there.
Blair Betts, Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn had yeomans duty for much of that kill which could have been a swing moment for the Sabres.
Simply a great kill among three big ones for the Flyers in both games here.
Yet, it didnt translate into direct momentum for the Flyers because Miller wasnt severely tested until the final nine minutes as Buffalo began dropping two and three players back to keep shots away.
They just want to protect him and keep things to the outside, ODonnell said. He makes the first save and they sweep it back. After we killed off that five-minute major, they seemed content to sit back and keep it outside. Miller played well.
Four minutes after the Briere save, Richards had a follow shot at the left post, but didnt get much on it as the puck wedged under Millers pad at the right post.
We had opportunities toward the net and pucks that were near missespucks rolling away from us, just opportunities wed like to get back, Richards said.
Most of the opening period saw the Flyers on their heels, defending in front of Brian Boucher.
The lone goal was nothing Boucher could be faulted on.
Buffalo got some tic-tac-toe passing between Tyler Ennis and Rob Niedermayer, who found Jason Pominville sneaking into the slot for an easy tap-in at 9:38.
The best chance for the Flyers came on an abbreviated 40-second power play when Miller somehow made a diving stick save on James van Riemsdyks bullet from 15 feet into the netting. After the faceoff, Kris Versteeg had a deflection, as well.
JVR had four quality shots that period.
Hes one of the best goalies in the world for a reason and when hes on his game, hes really tough to beat, JVR said. We had a lot of good chances.
With five minutes left, Carter and Sabres defenseman Tyler Myers both collided, knee-on-knee, knocking Carter out of the game. He is listed as day-to-day now.
In the second period, Daroll Powe nailed the crossbar through a screen on a play that ended up with Carcillo getting into it with Miller, who poked him with a stick, and then having to fend off Mike Weber, who defended Miller.
That set up a four-on-four where the Flyers again had some chances, but couldnt connect.
Things only got worse when Kaleta drilled Richards into the Flyers bench. Richards swung around with his arm up and struck Kaleta. Yet, if it were a deliberate head shot under the new rules, then Richards should have gotten a game misconduct. He didnt. Again, the wrong call.
The bulk of the penalty carried over into the final period.
Its obviously a physical series, Richards said. Well get it back to our building where we feel comfortable playing in front of our fans. Its going to be loud in there.
The Flyers now have to rebuild home ice.
Our guys played really hard tonight, Laviolette said. We had to handle the first six, eight, 10 minutes of the game.
After that we settled in and really went on the attack, especially in the third period. It seemed we were down in their end the entire time.
So was Miller.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net
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