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Barnes-burner! Stu staves off elimination for Sabres
Posted: Monday May 01, 2000 11:29 PM BUFFALO, N.Y. (CNNSI.com) -- Stu Barnes couldn't have placed it any better ... even if he had tried. But the reality was that Barnes' off-balance wrister found the top shelf by blind luck, which was good enough for a 3-2 overtime victory to stave off elimination.
"It's been a close series up to this point, we've just tried to stay positive going into these games, just go out and give it our best. All we can do is get one at a time," Barnes said. "We got one, hopefully Thursday night we get another." Curtis Brown and Miroslav Satan each had a goal and assist for the Sabres, who won despite blowing a 2-0 lead and also overcoming yet another disputed goal. Rick Tocchet and Keith Primeau scored and Mark Recchi had two assists for the Flyers, who have lost eight straight overtime playoff games. Their last overtime win in the postseason came in the 1995 conference finals against New Jersey. "It's disappointing anytime you have a chance to win the series," Flyers' forward John LeClair said. "It's not the end of the world. And nobody said we were going to beat these guys four straight. "We're still in this series. You can't let something like that stop what's been going on." The Sabres snapped a five-game winless streak (0-4-1), going back to the regular season, Sabres coach Lindy Ruff wondered when his team would finally be able to pull a game out against the defensively-sound Flyers. Now, he thinks his Sabres have a chance. "I've always said when you're losing, you never know when you're going to win again," Ruff said. "And when you win a game, you think you can win them all again." Only the 1975 New York Islanders and the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs have rallied from a 3-0 deficit in NHL playoff history. James Patrick set up the game-winning play when he kept the puck in at the right point. He fed a bouncing pass to Barnes, who was parked in the slot. Turning towards the net, and falling down, Barnes wristed a shot that went into the top right corner. Down 2-0, the Flyers got on the board when Tocchet deflected Recchi's point shot through Dominik Hasek's legs 13:55 into the second period. It was Philadelphia's sixth power-play goal of the series. Primeau tied it with 1:35 left in the second. Recchi got a weak, bouncing shot off and Hasek couldn't control the rebound. Recchi then swiped the puck into the slot where Primeau chipped it in. The Sabres got off to a great start despite having another call go against them. Vladimir Tsyplakov had a goal taken away when referee Dan Marouelli prematurely blew his whistle 28 seconds in. Boucher reached out for a loose puck to the left of his net following a Vaclav Varada shot. Instead of grabbing the puck, Boucher pushed it further away, allowing Tsyplakov to chip a shot over his shoulder. Marouelli, standing on the opposite side of the net, lost sight of the puck and blew the play dead, right before Tsyplakov scored. The Sabres have been snake-bitten, as the call came after LeClair shot a puck through the side of the mesh in the Flyers' 2-1 victory in Game 2. That goal was allowed to stand because play resumed before a conclusive replay was shown. Tuesday, the Sabres were not deterred. Buffalo scored two minutes later, capitalizing on a two-man power-play when Brown deflected Satan's point shot through Boucher's legs. It was the first goal Boucher allowed in 111:59, after he shut out the Sabres 2-0 on Sunday. Satan made it 2-0 one minute into the second period. Boucher, a rookie, tried to take his first career playoff loss in stride. "They seemed to throw everything tonight. You could tell they were playing desperate," said Boucher, whose Flyers were outshot 34-28. "This was a game we wanted, but we're still up 3-1 and we need to gather ourselves, go home and give it our best."
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