GAME 4: Sabres 4, Islanders 2

The Sabres take control of the series in another hard fought game at the Masoleum....err...Coliseum.

Chris Drury tabs a pair of goals for the second time in this series and Jason Pominville adds the critical insurance goal late in the third period as the Sabres survive another last minute Islander goal and a controversial "no goal" late in the third to defeat the pesky Islanders 4-2. With the win they boys in blue and gold take a commanding 3-1 lead in the series.

The Islanders struck first with a goal by Jason Blake, but the Sabres answered back with goals by Drury and Vanek. All seemed well heading into the opening period's dying moments until Ryan Smyth was able to grab the puck to negate an icing call and next thing you know...Sillinger puts the puck in the net with a half minute left in the period. Hmmm, where have we seen that before...

But a penalty to Richard Park put the Sabs on the power play to start the second period and they converted with Drury's second of the night to put them back in front.
The scoring remained that way until a scrum occured in front of the Sabre net with about two minutes left in the third resulting with the puck in the back of the net with what appeared to be the game tying goal....

Not so fast, the referee had blown the whistle(and in later comments) because Miller was shoved into the net with possession of the puck. The play went to Toronto to be reviewed, but since the whistle blew it was considered a non reviewable goal(again, according to an NHL official).

Pominville then struck to ice the game, and down rained the bottles..at least it was better than game 3.

Nolan was adamant in the post game that the goal was a good one. You gotta feel for him, first the Vanek goal in Game 3 and now this. With his scrappy club fighting the top seed tooth and nail it must be frustrating not to get a break here and there.

At the end of the night though, Sabres lead the series 3-1 and head back to Buffalo to attempt to close it out.

Some random thoughts on tonight....

Saw Satan and Yashin arguing the "no goal" call.I think that's the first time they've been heard from all damned series.

Exactly twenty years ago to the day Patty LaLa ends one of the longest postseason games in history with his OT goal to beat the Caps in Game 7 of their Division Semifinal series.

Some boarding call that was on Numminen, Blake got tapped from behind then jumped into the boards.....

Noticed the Tim Horton's ad on the boards at the left end. Has the Horton's empire reached the NY Metro area yet???