Feature Articles

Wild Fall in Anaheim; Sabres Stay Hot By James Meyerriecks

It's always wonderful to turn Sportscenter on and see that, on a night when there were no other professional sports played, hockey is buried until about a half-hour into the show. Though T.O. hasn't made any noise in the NFL this past week, I'm sure they'd sooner air a story on what he ate for breakfast than show hockey highlights. It's truly disheartening how the mainstream media just doesn't seem to care, and the sad thing about this is that I would assume that nearly half of the casual fans of the NHL might not even know the season has started because the biggest sports media outlet in the U.S. won't even give hockey the time of day. I mean... it's not like there were any big early-season matchups tonight or anything, were there? We only had a rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals from last season matching two of the favorites in the East and a matchup of the West's last unbeaten team (Minnesota) against many experts' pick to win the Stanley Cup (Anaheim). Now that I've gotten that off my chest.....

The atmosphere in HSBC Arena was electric tonight as the Sabres downed the defending Stanley Cup Champion Hurricanes 5-4. Buffalo, who lost a thrilling seven game series to the Hurricanes last May, has won the first two meetings with Carolina this season as they've come flying out of the gates with a 7-0 start. Dating back to last season, they've now won twelve straight regular season games, a new franchise record.

In a game many would figure might be dominated by two of the league's best offenses, we had few surprises Friday. Neither Cam Ward (5 GA on 29 shots) nor Ryan Miller (4 GA on 20 shots) had strong nights from a fantasy perspective, though neither goaltender played particularly poorly. The offensive stars just happened to click tonight.

Scott Walker started the scoring for Carolina on a nice feed from Eric Staal midway through the first, but Buffalo's Jason Pominville, who scored the first goal of the NHL season when the two teams met on opening night in Carolina, answered back just four minutes later. Each team would score twice in the second, with Staal getting on the board on the Power Play and star winger Maxim Afinogenov scoring Buffalo's second goal in a two minute span midway through the period to give the Sabres a short-lived lead.

With the two teams tied entering the 54th minute, however, Thomas Vanek buried a quick wrister that squirted through Ward's pads to put Buffalo in front for good. Jaroslav Spacek scored just two minutes later to give the Sabres some much-needed insurance before Mike Commodore buried a shorthanded marker with 1:15 to play to complete the scoring, but Buffalo stood tall in the final minute as they held on 5-4.

Sabres Notes: Afinogenov had a hand in Buffalo's final three goals, scoring late in the second and assisting on Vanek and Spacek's goals in the third. Vanek and Afinogenov have now combined for fourteen points in the past two games, as they had four and five points respectively in Buffalo's 9-1 win over Philadelphia on Tuesday.... Chris Drury was held without a point for the first time in seven games Friday.... Spacek's game-winner was his second in as many games.

Hurricanes Notes: Though Tim Gleason hasn't exactly solved the issues of putting a defenseman on the point on the Power Play, the 'Canes have gotten a nice start from their other acquisition in the Jack Johnson deal. Eric Belanger scored his third of the year and has at least a point in five of eight games so far this season... While we were expecting a fairly healthy split in goal from Carolina, Ward has now started four straight and seven of the eight games they've played this season. Expect John Grahame to get into a game soon.... Since suffering three game scoreless streaks, Staal and Whitney have now had at least a point in each of the past four games. Three of the four were multi-point games.

While the East Coast's game of the night was all about offense, the blueliners and goaltenders controlled the big game in the West Friday. The Ducks used a pair of goals from their defensemen and J.S. Giguere made 27 saves as Anaheim outlasted the Minnesota Wild 2-1. Anaheim captain Scott Niedermayer started the scoring early in the second, beating Wild goalie Manny Fernandez, who was without his stick, on a quick wrist shot. Stay-at-home defenseman Sean O'Donnell padded the lead seven minutes later when Sammy Pahlsson found him open in the slot.

Wild winger Pierre-Marc Bouchard finally got on the board just over a minute later on a high deflection off to the side of the net. Giguere was fantastic the rest of the way, though, stopping all eleven shots he would face in the third.

Ducks Notes: Don't go running to your waiver wire to grab O'Donnell. His goal in the second was his first of the year, and just his fifth since 2002.... Off to a 4-0-2 start with a fantastic 1.77 GAA and .942 Save Percentage, Giguere has seized control temporarily of the starting role in Anaheim. Expect Randy Carlyle to ride the hot hand all season, meaning that Ilya Bryzgalov should still see plenty of starts once Jiggy cools off... Corey Perry assisted on Niedermayer's goal, and seems to be building nicely on his strong rookie season from a year ago. With four points in the past two games, he now has seven in as many games this year.

Wild Notes: Brian Rolston assisted on Bouchard's goal to extend his point-scoring streak to three games. He leads Minnesota with nine points so far this season... Marian Gaborik saw his point-scoring streak end at three games, while Pavol Demitra was held without a point for the first time in seven games this season... Kurtis Foster assisted on the Bouchard goal for his first point in four games... Fernandez stopped 27 of 29 shots in the loss.

Around the League

- Bryan McCabe and Kyle Wellwood each had a goal and an assist as the Leafs beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2. McCabe started the scoring midway through the second period by burying a pretty feed from behind the net from Mats Sundin. Wellwood added his second goal of the season to break a 1-1 tie late in the period, while Michael Peca added his first goal with Toronto 34 seconds later to provide the difference. Andrew Raycroft made 23 saves as he improved to 4-2-1 on the year.

- Simon Gagne scored twice, but it wasn't enough as the Flyers dropped their fifth straight in Florida 3-2. Olli Jokinen's Power Play goal with less than two minutes to go in the third was the difference. Eddie Belfour stopped 25 shots for his first victory of the season.

- The Vancouver Canucks scored the final three goals of the game as they shook a monkey off their back and beat the Blues 3-2 in St. Louis. The Blues, who finished with the worst record in the NHL last season, won all four meetings last year, but just couldn't hold off a furious late third period charge from Vancouver tonight. Markus Naslund sent the game to overtime with just 26 seconds to play, burying a Power Play opportunity to knot the game at 2-2. He would find Sami Salo in the dying seconds of overtime, who beat St. Louis goaltender Curtis Sanford as time expired in the extra session to escape with a victory. The Sedin Twins combined for three assists, with Henrik assisting on both Power Play goals in the third. Sanford was fantastic for most of the game, stopping the first 26 shots he faced and finishing with 36 saves in 39 chances.

- The Dallas Stars used a balanced attack and scored twice in the final 1:14 to beat the Chicago Blackhawks 5-4. Montreal transplant Mike Ribeiro knotted the game at 4-4 at 18:46 of the third off of a centering pass from Niklas Hagman. Phillipe Boucher added his first of the year just 45 seconds later for the final margin. Jere Lehtinen had a goal and an assist for the Stars, while Radim Vrbata had three assists in the loss for Chicago. Martin Havlat went without a point for the first time in six games this season, and left with an injury to his right ankle in the third. X-Rays were negative, but he'll be re-evaluated tomorrow.

For the time being, this is a temporary preview of something we may be running on the front page at FIC three or four days a week throughout the NHL season. If you want your daily hockey fix now, I'll also be running this as an off-site blog for the time being. The following is just a taste of what you can find at Neutral Zone Trap! If you would like to see NZT on the front-page at FIC all year, please vote here!

James Meyerriecks has been actively involved at FIC since its inception in 2001, and has been writing The Hook throughout the MLB season since 2002. This season, he'll be tackling a weekly hockey column, The Blue Line, as well as a semi-weekly blog called Neutral Zone Trap. He's also represented FIC in a handful of Experts Leagues over the past three seasons and is a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association.

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