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You gotta hand it to Peter Laviolette.
He went ALL-IN with Martin Gerber and he won.
Talk about brass nads !
His bet paid off and the Eastern Conference Finals are tied 2-2. Carolina now have the home ice advantage, with two out of the next three in Raleigh.
I left HSBC Arena on Friday afternoon at 1pm.
I was curious as to why Marty Gerber was off the ice before Cam Ward. Gerber meyt the media in his stall while Ward skated with Carolina's Black Aces.
When did Lavi break the news to his rookie goalie?
"This morning after practice", said an elated Gerber after the game.
You'd be elated too if you had just stolen your jonb back from a 22 year old kid, by pitching a near perfect shutout. On the road in a hostile building. To square the series at 2 games apiece. Gereber's performance in Game 4 reminded me of the 2-0 shutout that he threw at Team Canada that Sunday morning in the Olympics. Gerber made several key saves in the first, to keep the game scoreless . Mark Recchi scored what proved to be the game winner midway through the third. That was the only goal Gerber would need. Gerber 4. Buffalo 0.
This was Carolina's best game of the series. All credit goes to The Hurricanes. They were the better team in Game 4. You can expect more from the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday night.
The Canes built a 3-0 lead, and then they tightened up their team D. The Buffalo forwards seemed ourt of sync, as they lost wall battles and loose puck battles. Carolina rolled their four lines and six D.
Mark Recchi, Eric Staal, Andrew Ladd and Bret Hedican scored for the Canes, who head home to host Game 5 on Sunday night.
Lindy Ruff reminded the assembled media that this loss was not the fault of his depleted defense corps. Ruff was in the mood to point the finger in the face of hisforwards and special teams for not supporting his D all night long. You can't blame Jeff Jilson and Doug Janik for this loss.
"I think that's a bunch of crap as far as I'm concerned," said Ruff.
"If we are going to win, we have got to be better on our special teams and our forwards got to be better".
"It's not the defence."
The Sabres went 0-for-4 on the power play and recorded only one shot on goal.
The Sabres know that they have to be better. One measly shot on goal is a pathetic effort. Carolina were good on this night, but they weren't the '82 Edmonton Oilers. They played a solid roadie, they threw down their trump card-Gerber-, now they have the momentum heading back home for Game 5.
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"The great thing about Marty is that he kept working in practice , and we kept seeing his game get better and better, and getting sharper and sharper. On a night like this when we really needed him, he stepped up ! Marty made big stops early, and we got a huge first goal by Recchi", said veteran blueliner, Brett Hedican, who was credited with the fourth goal of the game- a shot that five-holed Ryan Miller after it re-directed off Brian Campbell's skate.
" I thought we skated much better tonight. We had amuch better back pressure. When we're moving our feet, we're gonna be tough to beat".
******
Cory Stillman was proud of his team after the game. He was especially happy for Martin Gerber.
" This is a building that gets loud, and we took the crowd out of it. I think we made the right decision, and I give our goaltender a lot of credit. He moved the puck. I think the big difference tonight was our defensemen made big plays and moved the puck up, and it allowed us to get into our offense"
*****
"That crowd was very much not into tonight, part of that is because we were able to get a little bit of a lead, and part of it is that Marty Gerber was able to make those big stops early, and they weren't able to grab that momentum from their crowd".
" I feel for Cam, because he was the guy who had to take the fall. He played very well the last game, but he was removed to send a message to the other players to get things going in the right direction."
"We got our home ice back", said Kevyn Adams.
***
:" I was just trying to keep it simple: get it wide, drive the net.....Dougie (Weight) made a great shot, and it was sitting there for me to bang in", beamed Carolina Forward and former Calgary Hitman., Andrew Ladd of his first NHL Playoff goal.
****
"Our game plan is simple: skate and create", said Doug Weight.
"I guarantee you Wardo wants the ball back, but he's no doubt happy for Gerbs".
****
The Buffalo room was a quiet place after the 4-0 loss.
Ryan Miller was a mirror image of his coach- he wasvisibly agitated when asked whether the Sabres' defense had betrayed him in the loss.
"I thought our D played well, it wasn't like they had 40 shots...we'll regroup and move forward. Its frustrating, but that's hockey."
Its hockey, however, its not ye brand of hockey that Miller has grown accustomed to backstopping in these playoffs. The Sabres came out flat in the first period, and the the fporwards appreared to be over-compensating for the losses of Teppo and Tallinder. Many time in the first period, the Sabres wingers were a half-step slow in pouncing o loose pucks, so not to create odd-man rushes into Miller's front porch.
" This was not the way we wanted to play. All is forgiven- its a hockey game. Throw it out the window, its over with. Now Game 5 becomes the most important game of the series".
" Without the home ice (advantage)we knew we'd have to go in there and get one. We've done it before. Now we have to go back in there and do it again. I don't think anybody should be beating themselves upwe just have to hold ourselves accountable- myself included. I felt like we gotta get a better read on what they want to do on the powerplay. Obviously they were gonna switch it up and the got the PP goal early from the shot on the side- I didn't see much of it. We knew they were gonna adjust and start to try new things."
Miller told me that he got the sense from looking down at Gerber that he's be ready to play. "He played well. He was really intense. I could see itin his body language that he was very intense. It would have helped us if we could have gotten one early- it may have gone the other way. But, he hadn't gotten his confidence going early. I think we will adjsut and get more pucks to the net. I don't think that our powerplay was good tonight...its gotta be better."
" We knew it was going to be a series where we pushed first, they pushed back, we pushed again, they pushed back....."
******
Expect lineup changes for Buffalo.Two forwards will move into the lineup: Connolly and Mair.
More in a little while......
Garth
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