Sabres too sharp for NY Rangers
NEW YORK: The Buffalo Sabres erupted for four goals in the second period to overcome a 1-0 deficit and beat the New York Rangers 5-4 on Sunday to clinch their Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series.
The Sabres, bottled up most of the series by the brilliant netminding of Henrik Lundqvist, showed how they led the National Hockey League in scoring with an offensive burst that lifted them to a 4-2 win in the pulsating series and a date with the Ottawa Senators in the conference finals.
"The only thing we could do was keep throwing the puck at the net and hope it would find the back of the net," Sabres co-captain Daniel Briere, who had three assists, told reporters.
Four different Sabres - Dmitri Kalinin, Jason Pominville, Jochen Hecht and Chris Drury - pierced the Rangers defense during a 10-minute stretch of the second period.
"They came out really hard in the second period," lamented Rangers coach Tom Renney, adding that the winners deserved victory. "They are where they should be."
But the Rangers would not go quietly and fought back fiercely in hopes of winning a 10th successive game on their Madison Square Garden home ice.
Buffalo tied the game 1-1 early in the second period when Kalinin scored with a shot that deflected off New York's Nigel Dawes, who sprawled across the ice trying to stop it at 1:29.
Agencies
(China Daily 05/08/2007 page24)
