Ask any NHL goaltender, and he will tell you that the ability to put mistakes behind you is just as important as reflexes.
New York Rangers' goaltender Daniel Blackburn provided a firsthand example Thursday night when his team rallied to tie the Buffalo Sabres 4-4 before 12,357 fans at the HSBC Arena.
Blackburn surrendered four goals on 11 shots during the second period, allowing the Sabres to come out of a 2-0 hole to take a 4-3 lead into the dressing room for the second intermission. He then weathered a Buffalo barrage in the opening minutes of the third, keeping the Rangers in the game until Pavel Bure could tie the score at 11:09.
"I think you just want to go back to the things that have been working for you the past couple years," Blackburn said. "That's what I did, and I think it was good to get some action on their power play early on and get back into the game."
With Buffalo on the power play, Blackburn survived furious pressure to start the third as the Sabres struck a goal post and were stoned on a point blank one-timer by the young Rangers net minder.
Blackburn's most important save, however, came in overtime on Buffalo defenseman Henrik Tallinder. Tallinder was left alone in front and one-timed a pass out of the corner back across the goaltender's motion, but Blackburn was able to flick his left foot at it and kick it away.
"It was just a reaction save," Blackburn said. "It was just a bouncing puck right in the slot, and he just took a whack at it, and I managed to get a pad on it."
Bure's goal was his third of the season. He took a wrist shot from the left face-off circle that appeared to glance off the skate of Sabres' defenseman Jay McKee. The shot beat Biron to the far side.
"It might have been deflected. It was a hard shot that went off the crossbar and hit my leg and went back in the net," Biron said. "It was just one of those bounces you don't get in a night."
The Sabres got all the bounces in the second period when they scored four times to erase a two-goal deficit. Miroslav Satan scored at 1:06 followed by Chris Gratton at 3:11. Bobby Holik answered for the Rangers to give them the lead again, 3-2 at 7:57 of the second period. Buffalo, however, closed out the scoring with goals by Tim Connolly at 12:27 and Satan again - his second of the game - at 16:01.
Satan's first goal was made possible by three excellent passes by his teammates. Connolly kept a New York clearing attempt in the zone and found Jason Woolley with a crafty behind the back pass. The pass caught all four Ranger penalty killers on the wrong side of the ice. Woolley spotted Jochen Hecht in front of the net, who faked Blackburn down and passed to a wide-open Satan cruising in front of the crease. Satan tapped the puck in the open net for his second goal of the season.
Unlike Satan, Gratton did it all by himself for his second of the year. Gratton blocked a Ranger shot in the Buffalo end and went in clear along the wing on Blackburn and scored with a high glove wrist shot that beat Blackburn from the left face-off circle. .
Holik's goal was indicative of the way the Rangers scored all night, getting traffic in front and grinding out goals. Holik tipped in a Darius Kasparaitis wrist shot from the point to give New York a 3-2 lead. Biron appeared to have the puck at first until it trickled through his pads and across the goal line.
The Sabres though answered right back with their second power play goal of the evening. Woolley passed to a wide-open Connolly, who one-timed a slap shot through the legs of Blackburn from the top of the left face-off circle.
To close the second period, Satan gave the Sabres their only lead of the night when he finished off a cycling play out of the corner. Satan accepted a pass from Gratton, skated uncontested to the net and slipped a backhanded flip through Blackburn's legs for the goal.
When it was all said and done, the Sabres had four goals on the night that demonstrated the skill and creativity that they have brought into this young season. Woolley got several Rangers' defensemen out of position with fake shots and Connolly seemed to have eyes in the back of his head on many passes.
"I don't think its anything we work on, but those guys are offensively gifted players that are just capable of (making great plays)," Sabres captain Stu Barnes said. "I think if some of us tried to do that we'd probably trip ourselves and end up looking kind of funny. Those guys are really great players, and opening it up like this is really giving the chance for their offensive talents to shine."
Eric Lindros scored twice in the first period to give his team a 2-0 lead. Both of Lindros' goals came on a two-man advantage. Rob Ray took a four-minute penalty, and then Alexei Zhitnik took a penalty to place the Sabres in the two-man down situation. Lindros' first goal came with two seconds left in Ray's first penalty, thus that penalty was released and the Sabres stayed down two men on Ray's second penalty.
News / Notes
The three stars of the game were Satan, Lindros and Gratton . The Rangers out-shot the Sabres 36-28 . It was the first of four meetings between the teams. New York won last year's series with a 3-0-1 record against Buffalo . Injured Sabre Maxim Afinogenov has been practicing on his own the last four days as he tries to recover from a concussion that has had him sidelined all season.
