Sabres knock off Flyers in OT

If Flyers fans were looking for effort from their club, they got it tonight against the Buffalo Sabres. Unfortunately, the Flyers' luck ran out in overtime as Daniel Briere beat Antero Niittymaki just 21 seconds into the extra frame. Nonetheless, the Flyers gave a strong showing tonight for three periods before falling to the Sabres. With Peter Forsberg out of the lineup with a mild right ankle sprain, the team rallied around little-known forward Randy Robitaille. Robitaille paced the Flyers with two goals tonight, but eventually hurt the team with a late-game penalty for too many men on the ice.

Despite the negatives, the Flyers produced plenty of positives. Robitaille scored first to put the Flyers in front 1-0. When the Sabres scored three straight goals to go up 3-1, they went to the attack... literally. Before all was said and done, three fights went down in the game, something unheard of in the new age NHL. Triston Grant duked it out with tough guy Andrew Peters. Mike Richards went at it with Nathan Paetsch. Ben Eager and Paul Gaustad exchanged fists as well. The Flyers won two of the fights, while the last scrap was one that left much to be desired. Gaustad got the first shot in on Eager from behind, and nothing really materialized as Eager drove Gaustad to the ice. Eager complained that it should have been an instigator on Gaustad, but the refs decided otherwise.

With the score 3-1, Alex Picard received a pass from Petr Nedved and ripped the shot past Martin Biron, who was filling in for the injured Ryan Miller. It was Picard's first goal of his NHL career, and it cut the Sabres lead to just one goal. The Flyers continued to pressure until the final horn of the second period, and got something they hadn't heard in a while: a standing ovation from the fans. It was well deserved, as the Flyers were hanging with the hottest team in the Eastern Conference and possibly in the entire NHL.

The momentum parlayed into an early third period goal as R.J. Umberger fired a wrist shot past Biron to tie the game at 3-3 just 20 seconds in. With the fans buzzing over the goal, the Flyers continued attacking Biron. With 11:29 gone by in the third, the Flyers caught a lucky break. Geoff Sanderson made a diving attempt at a loose puck to keep it in the zone. Kyle Calder was patient with the puck at the low circle, and then zoomed a pass across the ice to Robitaille, who one-timed it past Biron to put the Flyers in front 4-3.

Then came those dastardly Buffalo Sabres. After the Flyers failed to score on a 3 on 0 (you are reading that right) the Sabres came back with 2:59 to play. On a point shot from Brian Campbell, Briere found a rebound in front and pushed it past Niittymaki to tie the game at 4-4. With just a half minute to play, the controversy arrived. Robitaille hopped off the bench and made an attempt to play the puck. Robitaille, unfortunately for the Flyers, was the sixth man on the ice. He was sent to the box for the penalty, and 21 seconds into overtime... Briere won the game for Buffalo with a slapshot past Niittymaki. That quickly, all the fun was gone. The effort from Petr Nedved, who had 3 assists, was gone. The first good game in a long time from Kyle Calder was thrown to the wayside. Robitaille went from hero to goat and the team lost a very winnable game. The good news? It's one point in the column, and this team will take it. Hopefully this is step one to getting back on track, but we've all heard that line before.