The Buffalo Sabres are now on the verge of the first upset of the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs.
They have Tyler Ennis to thank for putting them one win away from the second round.
Ennis’ second goal of the night last night beat Philadelphia goaltender Michael Leighton 5:31 into overtime, as the Sabres downed the Flyers, 4-3, to take a 3-2 series lead back to Buffalo for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.
For his efforts, Ennis is the TheBruinsBlog.net Star of the Night.
Things looked dicey for the Sabres for a while after they squandered all of a 3-0 lead. But then the determined Ennis stepped up. As John Vogl wrote in the Buffalo News today:
Ennis’ exuberance started prior to overtime. He was already picturing the victory celebration. He’d seen enough OT playoff games growing up to know the goal-scorer gets all the attention. As he sat through intermission, he knew he wanted to be that guy.
“I think everyone was really excited,” Ennis said. “I know I was. I haven’t been in too many NHL overtime games. I know I just really wanted to score the winner. I just wanted to be that guy to score it.”
He did exactly what he wanted to do. And now the seventh-seeded Sabres are where they wanted to be, one win away from eliminating the defending Eastern Conference champs.
Honorable mention: Ryan Miller (36-for-39 saves) of Buffalo; Andrej Meszaros (1-1-2) of Philadelphia; Jerred Smithson (GWG OT) and Shea Weber (GTG with 0:36 left in regulation) of Nashville; Jason Blake (2G) of Anaheim.
Last night’s scores
Buffalo 4, Philadelphia 3 (OT)
Nashville 4, Anaheim 3 (OT)
Today’s games
Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh, noon
NY Rangers at Washington, 3
Montreal at Boston, 7
Los Angeles at San Jose, 10:30
How about Bobby “Silver” Ryan’s goal last night? I woke the old lady up hootin’ about that one!
The Flyers seem like an organization with shattered confidence at a coaching and management level. It’s as though they’ve started to buy into the longstanding questions over their goaltending. It’s like they prematurely panicked about giving up a few goals in games they won at the start of the series. Three goalies in five games with no injuries to account for the changes? It’s bizarre.
Boucher did let in 2 very bad goals, but with the Flyers losing two games 1-0 in this series I would be hard pressed to blame the goalies if they lose it. Just like I was stunned to see countless articles about Thomas “puking on his skates” after the Bruins only scored 1 goal in the first two games. I’m still waiting for a full-length feature article calling out Milan Lucic for contributing nothing for almost a month. In playoff 4 games he’s a -2 with 5 shots on net.
I’m not saying we should or shouldn’t trade Thomas this summer, but after a night of watching Buffalo score twice from behind the goal line and then win it on the Rebound palooza, you have to think teams like Philly will think a lot longer and harder about that $5million and whether its maybe a large but very GOOD investment.