Buffalo has taken a 5-0 lead on Philadelphia, less than eight minutes into the second period. So, barring an epic comeback by the Flyers, the Sabres will win the series in six games, 4-2, on the road — the first road win for either team. That said, it wouldn’t be the first time a Buffalo sports team has lost in utterly heartbreaking fashion, so let’s all knock on wood repeatedly now, shall we?

The Flyers just pulled goalie Robert Esche out of the game. I was impressed that the Philly fans, obviously realizing that their season is almost certainly over, cheered him when he left the ice — recognizing his success during the season instead of booing him for his poor performance tonight.

Go Sabres!

UPDATE: Sabres win, 7-1! Bring on Ottawa!

UPDATE 2: Here’s Bfloblog’s wrap-up of the game.

Also tonight, the Carolina Hurricanes — or, as I like to call them, the Hartford Whalers of Raleigh — clinched their first-round series in six games as well. If the Whalers Hurricanes beat the Devils and the Sabres beat the Senators, Buffalo would play Hartford Carolina in the Eastern Conference finals. I would root for Buffalo, but with a slightly heavy heart. LET’S GO WHALE! :)

The Detroit Red Wings, the #1 seed in the Western Conference* and hockey’s best team during the regular season, were eliminated from the playoffs last night by the #8 seed Edmonton Oilers. The Red Wings led the series 2-0, but lost four straight games to fall in 6. They also led last night’s game, 2-0 at the start of the third period and 3-2 with four minutes left… but still managed to lose, 4-3. The Oilers are the seventh #8 seed to pull a first-round stunner in the NHL, and the first since 2002.
Kevin at Bfloblog writes: “I like Edmonton, and they seem like the kind of city that Buffalo would get along with.” Heh. Them crazy Albertans probably spent all night oot at the bars celebrating, eh? :)

Tonight: the Eastern Conference’s #4-seeded Buffalo Sabres try to eliminate the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 of that series. In anticipation of which, Becky offers the Top Ten reasons Philly is going down. Gametime is 7pm.

Meanwhile, in the NBA, the #6 seed L.A. Clippers beat Carmelo Anthony and the #3 seed Denver Nuggets, 101-83, to win the series in 5 games — the Clippers’ first playoff series victory in 30 years. (They were the Buffalo Braves back then.) If the #7 seed Lakers, who lead the #2 seed Phoenix Suns 3-1 thanks to Kobe Bryant’s heroics, can win that series, the Clippers will face the Lakers in a Battle of L.A. in the second round. Heh!

*Since when is Detroit in the “west”?

The Buffalo Sabres won Game 5 of their best-of-seven series against Philly yesterday, to take a 3-2 lead. (See also here and here.) One thing is now certain: the Sabres will not lose this series on the road. Either they’ll wrap it up tomorrow night in Philadelphia, or else there will be a Game 7 in Buffalo on Thursday. Thus far, the home team has won all five games in the series.

In a related story, Casey notices an unfortunate gaffe by the Associated Press.

Also taking a 3-2 series lead yesterday were the Hartford Whalers of Raleigh.

The Sabres lost Game 4 last night, so the series is tied 2-2 heading back to Buffalo. So far, the home team has won all four games (contrast that to the WhalersHurricanes-Canadiens series, in which the home team has lost all four games). If the home-ice advantage persists, that whould be good news for the Sabres (knock on wood), since they have Game 5 and potentially Game 7 at home. The bad news? They looked like crap in Game 4. Hopefully they can pull it together before Sunday’s game, which will be on NBC at 2:00 PM.

P.S. In the spirit of the “L.A. Angels of Anaheim,” is it OK if I refer to the Carolina Hurricanes as the “Hartford Whalers of Raleigh”? :) Speaking of which… I’ve done some memory-lane stuff for our resident Sabres fans… well, here’s something for my fellow Connecticutians who remember the good old days:

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Not that I ever went to a Whalers game or anything, but whatever. I was sufficiently aware of their existence that I remember the song… :)

Becky and I have spent the last 20 minutes calling pretty much every sports bar in South Bend and the surrounding Michiana area, trying to find a place where we can watch Game 3 of the Sabres-Flyers series on TV tonight. The only game that local cable subscribers can watch is Rangers-Devils on OLN, but you’d think that some sports bar in town would have all the games, wouldn’t you? But noooo… “we don’t have the hockey package” is the response I keep getting. Even BW-3, which claims it is “famous for Buffalo Wings,” doesn’t have the Buffalo game! It’s a travesty! :)

I realize South Bend is a football town, not a hockey town, but still, you’d think there’d be some bar filling this niche. It’s not like Chicago (home of the Blackhawks) and Detroit (home of the Red Wings) are that far away… and Notre Dame students come from all over the country, including hockey towns… surely we’re not the only people who have ever wanted to watch a not-otherwise-televised playoff hockey game at a sports bar in Michiana!

Anyway, if anybody knows of a sports bar in the area that gets the “hockey package,” please leave a comment…

UPDATE: Philly wins, 4-2. (It was 3-2 until the Flyers scored an empty-net goal with 15 seconds left.) So now it’s a 2-1 series. Hopefully Buffalo takes Game 4 and then wraps it up at home in Game 5.

UPDATE 2: BFLOBLOG has an excellent game summary.

My resident Buffalonian readers — especially those who have followed the city’s beloved Sabres for as long as Becky has — will doubtless appreciate (as she did) these clips of Rick Jeanneret’s radio calls on what WGR 550 calls two of the four greatest moments in Sabres playoff history.

The first clip is from the April 24, 1993 contest that’s known simply as the “May Day” game, in which Brad May’s overtime goal gave Buffalo — playing at home — a playoff sweep of the rival Boston Bruins:

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The second clip is from a game that Becky has told me about countless times since we met: the April 27, 1994 quadruple-overtime win over New Jersey in Game 6, also on Buffalo’s home ice. The Sabres and Devils had essentially played two full games plus an extra 5:43 without either team scoring a goal — Dominik Hasek had 70 saves, 39 of them in overtime — before Buffalo’s Dave Hannan finally scored in the fourth overtime (a.k.a. the seventh period) to send the series to a seventh and deciding game (which, alas, the Devils won). It was a Wednesday-evening game that ultimately ended at 1:52 AM on a Thursday morning, and as Becky tells it, some folks in attendance just went out to breakfast afterward (probably after making a pilgrimage to Chippewa Street) rather than bothering to try to get any sleep before work the next day. Anyway, here’s Jeanneret’s call… you gotta love how his voice is cracking after calling a six-hour hockey game:

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The clips are from Jeanneret’s CD, Roll the Highlight Film, which you can supposedly buy here. (Hat tip: Random Thoughts 101.)

For those anxious for a bit more Sabres nostalgia, click the “more…” link below to read a couple of Buffalo News articles about the 1994 game. (Thank you, Lexis-Nexis!)

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Listening to Game 2 of the Sabres-Flyers series (I’m emotionally invested now, after watching that amazing Game 1 in Buffalo) on WGR 550 over the Internet, and so far, it’s a slaughter: 4-0 Sabres, less than 10 minutes into the game! Woohoo!

You wonder if this is one of those situations, like the ALCS last year, where a really close game early in the series causes such a huge momentum swing that the winning team ends up running away with the series. Buffalo fans can hope so, anyway. (Knock on wood!)

On a related note, this audio clip is funny.

UPDATE: Buffalo scores again! 5-0 at the end of the first period. Heh.

UPDATE 2: Our resident Buffalonians will no doubt appreciate this audio clip of Rick Jeanneret’s goal calls from the first period:

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Incidentally, it’s 6-1 now.

For much more Sabres blogging, visit BFLOBLOG.com. (Hat tip: BuffaloPundit.)

P.S. You can download a video of the final play of Game 1, with Jeanneret’s radio call, here. (Hat tip: In da Buff, via BFLOBLOG.) And you can view the memorable Campbell-Umberger hit here.

FINAL UPDATE: Sabres win, 8-2, to take a 2-0 series lead. The AP article begins:

The rest of the Philadelphia Flyers know exactly how rookie R.J. Umberger felt after they, too, where flattened by the Buffalo Sabres.

Heh. Game 3 is Wednesday night in Philadelphia.

Last night, my brother-in-law Casey was in attendance at Game 1 of the Sabres-Flyers NHL playoff series, a double-overtime thriller that the Buffalo News described as “an instant classic that will be talked about for years to come” and “a rollicking contest that included numerous highlight-reel plays, miracle saves, bouncing pucks with open nets and perhaps the most sensational open-ice hit you can hope to see.” Oh yeah, and the home team won, 3-2, to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. (LET’S GO, BUFFALO!) Casey has a post on his blog about the “high honor and distinct privilege” of being at the game.

For Casey, this is perhaps a bit of redemption for missing another “instant classic” just over six months ago. He was originally planning to attend the USC-Notre Dame game last October 15, and I was in the process of trying to get him tickets, when he changed his mind because he desperately needed to study. (Casey is a Ph.D. student in finance at the University of Rochester. He studies a lot.) After watching the incredible drama of that game — one of the greatest in college football history — on TV instead of in person, he concluded that, in retrospect, the only thing that could possibly have justified his decision to opt out of attending would have been his own death. Heh.

Well, last night’s game may not have been one of the greatest in hockey history, but it certainly was memorable. And this time, it was me and Becky who were watching on TV while Casey and his friend Steve experienced firsthand the awesomeness of being surrounded by crowd noise “so loud that my ears would just sort of crack, unable to register anything beyond a certain decibel level.”

That said, we had a great time watching the game, too, albeit not in person. After meeting up with Casey and Steve for chicken wings and beer at Anchor Bar, we went to Marissa’s house (Marissa is one of Becky’s SHA girls) and watched the game on a giant plasma TV in her basement. The atmosphere there was slightly less intense than at HSBC Arena, and the crowd noise slightly less extreme, but it was certainly very fun to watch such a great Sabres game with a bunch of crazy Buffalonians. Needless to say, overtime was very suspenseful and tense, and we all went completely nuts when Buffalo finally won the game.

Actually, you could argue that “completely nuts” is something of an understatement. You see, it so happens that Marissa lives down the street from Sabres center Daniel Briere, and sometime during the second period, with Buffalo nursing a 2-0 lead, someone joked that, if they hold on to win, we should go to Briere’s house after the game and leave a congratulatory sign on his door. I doubt this would actually have happened if the game had ended less dramatically — but when it went to double overtime, and then Briere scored the winning goal, the stalk-Briere plan obviously gained unstoppable momentum, Marissa’s objections notwithstanding. :) So, within minutes after the game ended, Kristy made a sign, and a half-dozen of us — laboring under various degrees of inebriation — ambled down the street, looking for Briere’s house. It took us a while to confirm exactly which one it was (because Marissa wasn’t with us), but ultimately we found the right one, and left him a bilingual greeting:

I hope he appreciated our sign. We certainly appreciated his goal! :)

After the game, while Casey and Steve were making their way down to Chippewa Street, the party at Marissa’s house continued unabated, albeit with less rythmic horn-honking and more of this sort of thing:

And also this sort of thing:

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Heh. That juggling guy ain’t got nothin’ on me! (The sad thing is, I was pretty much sober when the above video was shot…)

More photos of our time in Buffalo here and here. The first page is mostly pictures from the Great Big Sea concert; the second page is mostly us hanging out with the SHA girls.

Oh yeah, and I got some work done this weekend too. Not a ton, but some. Admittedly, going to Buffalo for five days, two weeks before finals, fits in pretty well with thebeef’s comment about “incredibly bad and unheard of choices” that make me “the ‘weather nerd’ in the NYT that we all love to read on a daily basis”… heh. It was totally worth it, though. Now comes crunch time. Tomorrow, I have decided, will be the most productive day of my life. :)

P.S. There is one other bit of news from the Buffalo trip that I’ll be posting about eventually. Stay tuned.

P.P.S. This is the Sabres’ first trip to the playoffs since 2001, which means the last two consecutive Buffalo playoff games have been attended by at least one member of the Zak family. Becky, her parents and I were at Game 7 of the Sabres-Penguins series in ‘01, which Pittsburgh won — coincidentally enough, also 3-2 in overtime. It’s the only NHL game I’ve ever attended, and it eliminated the Sabres from the playoffs, to which they would not return until last night.

UPDATE You can download a video of the final play, with the radio call by the legendary Rick Jeanneret, here. (Hat tip: In da Buff, via BFLOBLOG.) And you can view that “sensational open-ice hit” here.

Amid all the transit hoopla, I totally forgot about Game 7 of the National Hockey League finals last night. But that’s okay, because the team I was rooting for — those lovable Canadians, the Calgary Flames — lost. Tampa Bay beat Calgary, 2-1, coming back to win the series 4-3 after trailing it 3-2.

The Lightning win Lord Stanley’s Cup for the first time in franchise history, and deny the Flames the opportunity to bring the Cup home to Canada for the first time in 11 years. Oh, well. Maybe next year, Canada.

I went to an aggravated assault, and a hockey game broke out.

Blame Canada.

Okay, so the Hartford Whalers don’t exist anymore, and Dominek Hasek doesn’t play for the Buffalo Sabres anymore. But still, the Stanley Cup finals between the Former Whalers (Carolina) and the Former Sabre Star’s New Team (Detroit) is sort of a proxy battle between my home city, Hartford, and Becky’s home city, Buffalo.

And after watching Hasek give up the game-winner in overtime to former Hartford star Ronnie Francis, all I can say is: Take that, Buffalo!