Hot Knives: Sabres Run Streak to Six

On paper, Thursday's early game was a mismatch. The 5-0 Lite-Sabres faced off against the tough-luck Keane Fire. The Fire entered the game with an 0-5 record, but had played the Sabres tough earlier in the season, losing a close 9-6 game.

The Fire, jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in Thursday's meeting, on goals by Kevin Haddad and Gian Scalet. This seemed to provide a wakeup call to the Sabres, who were missing the services of elite forwards Peter Rowe and David MacKenzie.

The Sabres stormed back scoring the final 4 goals of the first period, while Haddad missed an open net and hit a goalpost late in the period.

The Fire continued to apply the pressure in the second period, firing 19 shots on Sabres goalie Chris McMaster. But the Sabres, statistically the best defensive team in the league, managed to withstand the pressure, allowing a solitary second-stanza score, while opening up a 6-3 second-intermission lead.

The Fire refused to rollover in the third. By the time Ho beat McMaster between the pads late in the third, the Fire were within a goal at 7-6. But the Sabres, who controlled most of the play late in the game, tallied 3 goals in the last 2 minutes to win 10-6.

Defenseman Mike Sullivan led the Sabres with 3 goals and 1 assist, while Ho and Glen Sophocleous scored two goals apiece for the Fire.

In Thursday's late game, the LAN Hackers squared off against the Keane Chill in a battle of fourth-place teams. This game was a throw-back to the early years of the FHL, in that it had lots of shots, lots of goals, and little defense.

The Hackers showed no mercy on first time goalie Jason Chan, peppering him with a staggering 68 shots over the course of the game. The Hackers were spurred by the return to the lineup of Spiro Bokolas, whose 4 points were instrumental in leading the Hackers to a comfortable 17-10 victory.

Bokolas' presence seemed to effect the play of Hacker grinder Peter Rankin, whose 5 points brought his season total to 6. Hacker legend John Price rebounded from a sub-par performance against the Sabres last week to score 6 goals and 1 assist. With the 7 points, Price assumed the lead in the league's scoring race by one point over Lynx forward Blaise MacPhee

Leading the way for the Keane Chill was rookie John Riley who had 2 goals and 3 assists, moving him into 6th in the league scoring race.