HOCKEY LAST NIGHT: BUFFALO CHARGE

What you may have missed as you took the restrictor plate off to give the Red Dragon a little more juice.

Sabres 4 'Canes 1: Yes, that was Maxim Afinogenov -- normally known for other kinds of highlights -- scoring a takedown of Justin Williams of a fight, a perfect capper as the Sabres completed a season series sweep of the defending champion for the second year in a row. (Who was the future brain surgeon who had last season's Eastern finalists play all their games before Jan. 1, anyways?)

This was an exhibit of the defensive system Al Strachan has panned as the Playing Card Five. The Sabres were outshot 12-1 in the first period, and really were never in trouble since Carolina couldn't get any rebound chances playing 3-on-5 below the top of the circles. Jason Pominville and Chris Drury got the game's first goals to start the second period, and the game was pretty much over.

Red Wings 7 Blue Jackets 4: The Wings have played Columbus so many times in the past couple weeks that they had to gift-wrap a couple goals for the Jackets -- yeah, we're talking about you, Niklas Kronwall -- just to keep this one interesting. Amazingly, Danny Cleary might actually still be available in some hockey pools.

Flyers 4 Lightning 3: Ah, geez Gil, why'd you go and bet the company payroll on the Phillies winning a game next before the Flyers did? Gil's in a lot of trouble... thanks to Peter Forsberg's three-assist effort and Robert Esche's 42 saves.

Kings 7 Oilers 4: Second time in a week that Edmonton's allowed seven goals in a game. Uh, that's not good.

NHL Scoreboard

Today's better games: Ducks-Hurricanes, 7 p.m.; Rangers-Senators, 7:30 p.m.; Leafs-Penguins, 7:30 p.m.

HOMETOWN BREAKDOWN

67's 6 Frontenacs 3: Change the setting, throw in newcomer Jason Bailey and this was almost a carbon copy of the Barberpoles' win in Kingston on Dec. 17 -- 67's goalie Brady Morrison bedevilled his former team, the Jamie McGinn-Logan Couture-Matt Lahey trio (eight points) tore it up and Ottawa won by three.

Second verse, same as the first: The Fronts come off as very fragile -- they outshot Ottawa 18-9 in the first period, but didn't score until the second-last minute of the frame and promptly gave that goal back when Lahey got the first of his two on the night just 34 seconds later (goal allowed in the last minute of the first and the first minute of the second, not to mention the second minute of the third). At least the Fronts now have goalie Daryl Borden back from his knee injury.

From here, you'd have to imagine that the Frontenacs have some kind of shake-up coming between now and the CHL trade deadline on Jan. 10. One win in 11 games kind of says it all.

Back with more later. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.