Saturday May 30 7:30pm
The Buffalo Sabres look to even their Eastern Conference finals series at two games apiece with the Washington Capitals when the teams battle in Game Four tonight.
Buffalo drew first blood with a 2-0 victory in the series opener, but Todd Krygier scored at 3:01 of overtime in Game Two on Monday to even the series at one game apiece and Peter Bondra struck at 9:37 of overtime on Thursday, giving the Caps the edge in the series.
Bondra is regaining his scoring touch at the right time for the Capitals. After tying for the league lead with 52 goals this season, Bondra scored only two goals in his first eight playoff games before tallying three times in the last two.
The Capitals have won five of six road playoff games, losing only Game Three to Ottawa in the semifinals.
Adam Oates leads the Caps with 12 points and Joe Juneau is second with 11. Surprisingly, defenseman Sergei Gonchar is Washington's leading goal-scorer with seven.
Washington's Olaf Kolzig boasts a league-best .945 save percentage, while counterpart Dominik Hasek is right behind at .938.
Buffalo had won its previous four games at Marine Midland Arena before losing on Thursday.
Matthew Barnaby and Donald Audette lead the Sabres in scoring with 13 points apiece. Barnaby leads the team with seven goals, while Audette has a team-leading eight assists.
Specialty teams have been a virtual standoff through the first three games. Washington is 3-for-16 on the power play, while the Sabres have scored twice in 16 opportunites with the extra attacker. However, the Caps did tally twice on the power play in four chances in Game Three.
Game Five is Tuesday in Washington.
