EASTERN FINALS
GAME SUMMARIES
GAME 3:
#4 TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS vs #7 BUFFALO SABRES
Buffalo leads 2-1
Next Game: Saturday May 29th, 1999 7:30pm at Buffalo
For a change, Dominik Hasek didn't dominate. This time his Buffalo Sabres teammates made it so he didn't have to.
Miroslav Satan, Joe Juneau and Stu Barnes scored goals just over seven minutes apart in the second period Thursday night as Buffalo rallied past the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
Again, as they did in losing the first game of the series to a goalie who had never started a Stanley Cup playoff game, the Maple Leafs wasted an opportunity to take a lead in the series.
Game 4 is Saturday night at Buffalo's Marine Midland Arena.
After sitting out the first two games of the series with an injured groin, Hasek was back in his familar spot after being replaced by backup Dwayne Roloson. With Hasek not his usual acrobatic self because of the injury, the Maple Leafs gained a 1-0 lead on a goal by Yanic Perreault late in the first period, then self-destructed and never recovered.
Satan, Buffalo's leading scorer during the regular season, made a sparkling return to the lineup after missing nine playoff games with an injured foot.
After testing Maple Leafs goalie Curtis Joseph with a hard, rising backhander that caromed off Joseph's glove and just missed going in midway through the first period, Satan regained the scoring touch that produced 40 goals during the regular season.
Satan slipped a soft shot past Joseph at 3:07 after Toronto defensemen Sylvain Cote and Tomas Kaberle gave away the puck in front of the goal.
A hooking penalty to Buffalo defenseman James Patrick just 22 seconds later seemed to spark the Sabres and their sparkplug captain, Michael Peca.
The 5-foot-11 center, Buffalo's leading scorer in the playoffs but held without a shot in the first two games after playing a dozen games against three 6-4 centers, finally came alive.
Peca scooped up a loose puck at center ice, crossed the Toronto line and unleashed a hard drive that hit a stick in front of Joseph. The puck then ricocheted off the goalie's right skate out in front to the unguarded Juneau, and he flipped it into the empty net at 3:45.
It was a stunning turnaround, and it wasn't over. Barnes scored on a power play at 7:38 for a 3-1 Buffalo lead. After Joseph had made a terrific pad save on Brian Holzinger in front, Barnes chopped in the rebound before the defense could react.
It was his fourth power-play goal of the series, gave the Sabres at least one extra-man goal in all 13 of their playoff games, and turned Hasek into a cheerleader.
Alexander Karpovtsev pulled the Maple Leafs within a goal, scoring on a Toronto power play at 13:09. Hasek made a nice save on the initial shot but lost his stick as the Maple Leafs scrambled for control. Karpovtsev got the rebound and his shot zoomed in off a skate of Buffalo defenseman Richard Smehlik as he was trying to hand Hasek his goalie stick.
Hasek made three game-saving stops in the third period, foiling a hard drive by Sergei Berezin and shots from the side of the net by Toronto captain Mats Sundin and Steve Thomas.
The Maple Leafs pulled Joseph, who made 20 stops, for an extra attacker to try for the tying goal in the last minute, but Curtis Brown scored into the empty net with 29 seconds left. It was his team-leading sixth playoff goal.
The penalty-marred contest ended in the final minute with 10 misconduct penalties handed out, five to each team.
The Maple Leafs managed just three shots on goal in the first period as the Sabres did everything they could to protect Hasek, who finished with 24 saves.
The first good shot came on a hard drive by Lonny Bohonos from the right circle midway through the period. The puck hit Hasek's blocker and deflected to the boards, but Hasek did not look like the goalie that had won the last two league MVP awards and led the Czech Republic to the Olympic gold medal at the 1998 Nagano Games.
The Maple Leafs scored on their third shot of the game, and the aura of invincibility that usually surrounds Hasek was gone just like that.
Perreault stole the puck from Juneau just inside the Buffalo blue line and kept it in the zone. After taking a return pass from Garry Valk, Perreault skirted the Buffalo defense, sailed in alone from the right side and beat Hasek with a hard, rising shot that made the all-star goalie flinch as it sailed into the net with just under four minutes left in the period.
It was Perreault's third goal of the playoffs, but it didn't take long for the Maple Leafs' glee to turn to gloom.