 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
*** PostGame Interviews & Coach’s Press Conference ***
_______________________________________________________________________________
Buffalo, NY (Sports Network) – Martin Biron stopped all 40 shots he saw against his former team to post his first shutout of the season as the Philadelphia Flyers downed the Buffalo Sabres, 3-0, at HSBC Arena.
Biron, who played his first eight-plus seasons in Buffalo before being traded to Philadelphia near the trade deadline in 2007, became the first Philadelphia goaltender to post a shutout in Buffalo since Tommy Soderstrom guided the Flyers to a 2-0 win on December 27, 1993. It was also Biron’s 24th shutout in his career.
Jeff Carter scored twice while Scott Hartnell tallied the other goal for the Flyers, who have won their last three games and have recorded a point in each of their last five contests.
Ryan Miller stopped 22 of 24 shots for the Sabres, who are in the midst of a season-high four-game losing streak.
Late in the first period Buffalo had a golden opportunity to take the early lead as the team had a two-man advantage for 1:15. Philadelphia, though, got some big saves from Biron and shortly after the final penalty expired took the lead.
Hartnell, who was called for slashing to give Buffalo the two-man opportunity, had come out of the box and was loitering in the neutral zone. Simon Gagne got the puck to Hartnell, who skated into the Buffalo zone all alone and roofed a backhander past Miller for a 1-0 lead with 58 seconds left in the first.
Biron wound up escaping the first 20 minutes without giving up a goal and making 12 saves.
Skating shorthanded, Philadelphia almost took a 2-0 lead a bit over five minutes into the second as the team had a 2-on-1 break, but Miller stopped Carter’s wrister from the left circle and Thomas Vanek was sprung on a breakaway going the other way.
Vanek was impeded by Hartnell, who wound up getting called for hooking to give Buffalo a two-man advantage, but he did get a shot on net. Biron, though, came up with the save and was strong on the two-man advantage to preserve the 1-0 lead.
Neither team scored in the second period as Biron stopped 13 shots while his counterpart, Miller, made 11 saves.
Buffalo was awarded a goal with 14:20 to play as Drew Stafford redirected a shot on net from the right side. The puck was stopped by Biron and it remained under his leg, but one of the officials on the ice thought it went over the goal line. Extensive replays showed that the puck didn’t come close to crossing the line and the goal was disallowed.
About four minutes later, Carter made it a 2-0 game as he picked up a clearing attempt in the Buffalo zone and from the right slot fired a laser into the right corner that Miller didn’t even react to.
Carter’s empty-netter with one minute to go accounted for the final score.
Game Notes
Philadelphia hosts Phoenix on Saturday…Buffalo next plays on Saturday when it will host the Islanders…Coming into the game, the Sabres had won nine of 12 against Philadelphia since the 2005-06 season…Gagne, who had an assist in the game, has a six-game point streak with three goals and six assists during the run…It was Hartnell’s first goal in 10 games…Neither team scored on the power play with Buffalo having five chances and Philadelphia three.
Content Copyright 2008, The Sports Network. Distributed by XML Team Solutions.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Scoring
Philadelphia Flyers:
1. S. Hartnell (5) (S. Gagne (12), A. Alberts (4)) 19:02 1st Pd
2. J. Carter (12) 8:19 3rd Pd
3. J. Carter (13) (A. Nodl (3), K. Timonen (7)) 19:00 3rd Pd
Buffalo Sabres:
No Goals Scored
Penalties
Philadelphia Flyers:
A. Asham (High-sticking) 16:08 1st Pd
S. Hartnell (Slashing) 16:53 1st Pd
J. Gratton (Fighting) 3:15 2nd Pd
. (Too Many Men) 4:08 2nd Pd
S. Hartnell (Hooking) 5:14 2nd Pd
J. Gratton (Unsportsmanlike Conduct) 8:19 3rd Pd
J. Lupul (Slashing) 15:40 3rd Pd
Buffalo Sabres:
J. Spacek (Interference) 3:19 1st Pd
A. Peters (Fighting) 3:15 2nd Pd
J. Hecht (Holding) 16:58 2nd Pd
T. Vanek (Tripping) 3:05 3rd Pd
C. Rivet (Roughing) 8:19 3rd Pd
This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 11:35 PM and is filed under Buffalo Sabres, Flyers, Game Recaps, Jeff Carter, Martin Biron, Regular Season, Scott Hartnell, Simon Gagne, Tommy Soderstrom.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
![[Valid RSS]](/images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
