ALLARD: GAME 1 WAS SAPRYKIN SWEET

Jean-Pierre Allard of Smarting Senators weighs in following the Senators' 5-2 win over the Sabres in Game 1 of the East final last night.

Quick now.

Raise your hands all of those who thought, like this dissident correspondent, that the Sabres would score the go-ahead goal in last night's third period and hang on to take a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference final.

Ottawa was all over Buffalo in the first two periods, yet let a 2-0 first period lead evaporate by the middle of the second frame,. By that point there was worrying about trying to beat an increasingly stingy Ryan Miller in nets for the Sabres, so it appeared like the Sens had lost a glorious chance at stealing home-ice advantage in this Stanley Cup semi-final.

Then Miller aped the previous excellent goaltenders that the Senators have easily humbled this spring and just like that, a 2-2 game turned into huge 5-2 win for Ottawa. Ray Emery stood his ground and while only facing 20 shots (against the 34 that the Senators fired at the Buffalo net) and just one or two gate-crashers, he nevertheless made huge saves when it counted.

He kept his team in the game until they found yet another way to score that improbable goal that often makes a difference between victory and defeat.

Oleg Saprykin scored the go-ahead goal, when he tipped Dean McAmmond's pass at 7:41 of the final period. Saprykin has been making Senators GM John Muckler look more and more like a non-idiot savant with every game that he plays while filling in for the concussed Eaves of destruction.

Jason Spezza made amends for letting Sabres defenceman Toni Lydman skate around him for the tying goal in period 2 with a clinching power-play goal after yet another late-game iffy call, this time tripping on Derek Roy.

The difference in the game, other than Miller's shaky third period and the curious non-factor play of Daniel Brière -- any time, Sabres' spin and medical doctors -- was the special teams.
The Senators were 2-for-6 on power plays. The Sabres were blanked on their five chances, and looked totally disorganized, allowing Mike Fisher's short-handed breakaway first-period goal goal shortly after McAmmond had missed on a partial breakaway.

Throw in 19 very uncharacteristic turnovers from Buffalo and you've got a stunning loss for the regular season Eastern Conference champs, who can readily relate this morning to how the Senators felt after Game 1 of last season’s series.

Unless Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff finds a way to impress upon his troops the value of hanging on to the puck and finishing their exciting offensive plays, this Buffalo team may well head out to Ottawa next Monday night down 2-0.

Now if Emery can refrain from going to see the Buffalo Bisons' game tonight at Dunn Tire Park - what if he falls asleep in the stands and then gets hit from an errant foul ball off the bat of a conspiring Bison? -- and instead opt for the safer and more rewarding clubbing activities of Buffalo's invigorating nightlife, residents of the entire National Capital Region, and Don Cherry too, will be sleep much better.

Jean-Pierre's Note: If some readers are wondering how I can somehow still manage to contain my excitement over the Senators' excellent and eye-opening march towards laying claim to Lord Stanley's storied silverware, consider that it wasn't until Allan Stanley won a face-off against Jean Béliveau with less than a minute left in Game 6 of the Cup final on May 2, 1967, enabling captain George Armstrong to score an empty-net goal, that I really started to celebrate the Leafs' fourth Cup of the decade. Until then, I was convinced the Habs would win the Cup, just like the Expo 67 directors, who had to cancel plans they had prematurely commissioned for a special exhibit to display Montreal's Stanley Cup victory at the World's Fair during the Summer Of Love. Oops.

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