Sabres' Scanlan Sears Fire with Last Minute Goal

For the second time in less than a week, the Lite-Sabres tallied in the waning seconds to eke out a one-goal victory. Monday’s victim was the Keane Fire, whose two-game winning streak was snapped with the 10-9 loss to the defending champions.

Sabres’ leading scorer Spiro Bokolas got his team off to a good start, scoring the first two goals of the game. But the Fire turned things around for the duration of the first period, firing 22 first period shots on Sabres netminder Chris McMaster. But they only managed to slip two rebounds past McMaster, knotting the game at two goals apiece entering the first intermission.

The Fire kept up the pressure in the second period, scoring the first two goals to take a 4-2 lead. But the Sabres’ grinders exacted some revenge on the undermanned Fire, scoring four of the next five goals – with each goal being scored by a different player. But the second period belonged to the sly fox, Fire forward Kenzie Royal, who scored his third and fourth goals of the period to give the Fire a 7-6 second intermission lead.

These two teams met in the first game of the 2003A season, in which the game was tied after two periods, and the Fire came on strong late in that game to cruise to a 9-7 victory. With that memory still fresh in the Sabres’ minds, they came out swinging in the third period. Goals by Bokolas, Chris Davison and Matt Wheeler gave the Sabres a 9-7 lead midway through the final frame.

But even with a solitary substitution, the Fire were able to mount a furious charge. First it was the Fire’s leading goal scorer Rob Tyrrell who beat McMaster stick-side with a hard shot to close the gap to 9-8. Then the wily veteran Kevin Haddad scored one of his classic wrap-around goals with mere minutes remaining to tie the affair at nine. But the Sabres are used to tight games this season, and it showed, as Blair Scanlan pinched in from the point with less than a minute remaining to knock home his second goal of the game to give the Sabres a 10-9 victory.

McMaster was forced to make one more blocker save, his 49th of the game, and 2099th of his career, in the final seconds to preserve the win for the Sabres. He was named the game’s first star, and passed Paul Chui as the league’s all-time leading save-maker in the process.

Bokolas was the second star of the game, due to his four goals and two assists, which included his 75th career helper. Sabres forward Chris Davison had a career game, scoring two goals and three assists, thus earning the tenacious forechecker the game’s third and final star. “I only had 7 points in my first 6 games,” explained Davison, “it was time to turn up the heat on the Fire.” Sabre captain McMaster forgave Davison for the brutal pun, but only because Davison gave him a drive home.

Three Fire players had four points each: Tyrrell (three goals, one assist), Royal (four goals) and Chad Griffin (four assists). Adam Pettigrew and Haddad had the other goals for the Fire in a losing cause.

With the victory, the Sabres leapfrogged the Fire into second place overall in the standings. Each of the Sabres’ seven games this season have been decided by two or less goals. Regardless of the results of this week’s other games, the Fire will safely remain in third place at the end of the week.