Posted by Tim Kavanagh, special to ESPN.com
To those who had discounted this season's version of the Buffalo Sabres from a fantasy perspective (ahem, I guess that includes yours truly), reports of their demise have been greatly exaggerated, as the saying goes.
Each game from here on out is important for the team from a reality perspective, and Friday night the team came out charged, scoring four first-period goals on the way to tallying a robust seven for the game. What makes the final score of 7-1 even more impressive is the way the defense played in front of Ryan Miller, and how well Miller himself came through, since Carolina was only able to put one goal past him on 28 shots. As usual, Buffalo spread the scoring around, with Derek Roy (two goals and an assist) and Adam Mair (one goal and two assists) leading the way. Ales Kotalik, Paul Gaustad, Daniel Paille and local product Patrick Kaleta scored the remaining Sabre goals and Scott Walker notched the lone tally for the Hurricanes. The game's result is devastating to any Cam Ward owners who find themselves in a playoff matchup this week: he faced just seven shots, and four of them went by him into the net. Ouch.
The third period got remarkably chippy in Buffalo, as 99 of the game's 129 penalty minutes were issued during that trimester. Walker was the breadwinner, with 23 total minutes of penalties including a 10-minute misconduct.
Although no other team was able to equal Buffalo's rambunctious seven-goal output, the Blackhawks came close, outpacing the Blue Jackets 6-3 in a matchup of teams who are holding onto a very small thread of playoff hope. The Blackhawks must've been reading up on their Karl Marx, because like their comrades from Buffalo, the Chicago skaters believe in spreading the wealth from a scoring perspective, and so the box score reveals six separate goal-scorers: Duncan Keith, Dustin Byfuglien, Cam Barker, Andrew Ladd, Dave Bolland and Patrick Kane, with Kane responsible for the ever-important game-winning goal. My colleagues and I have been pleading with you out there to pick up Andrew Ladd for a few weeks now, and as of his past nine games, he has eight points, including a goal and two assists on the power play. The Blue Jackets were paced by Fredrik Modin, Rick Nash and Dan Fritsche, and what was said above about Cam Ward's owners also applies to Pascal Leclaire's owners: he faced just six shots, and let in three goals. Fredrik Norrena fared slightly better, letting in three goals as well, but managing to make 16 saves. Patrick Lalime had a nice turnaround game, saving 29 of 32 shots after yielding six goals on 25 shots to the undermanned Oilers earlier this week.
Although it appears that their team is being kept at arm's length from the playoffs by the Hurricanes as this season draws to a close, fans of the Capitals can be consoled by the fact that they will get to watch Alexander Ovechkin wear Washington's jersey as he dominates every game he plays for the next 13 years. "Alex the Eight" scored a goal and added an assist, bringing him to 99 points on the season and padding his lead in the scoring race to six points over Evgeni Malkin, and the Caps won 4-1 over the Thrashers. Brooks Laich continued a fine March campaign, with two more goals, giving him six points in the seven games this month, and Matt Cooke rounded out the scoring for Washington with his ninth goal on the season. Atlanta's Slava Kozlov scored the game's first goal at 11:41 of the first period, but that would be it for Atlanta on Friday night. In between the pipes, Olaf Kolzig faced an astonishingly low 12 shots, stopping 11, and the Atlanta defense must've thought that Kari Lehtonen was a load of freshly-washed garments, because they hung him out to dry, and he finishes with 33 saves on 37 shots.
The waters in the NHL's Western Conference must be filled with chum, because the Sharks will not stop attacking. Friday night's victim was St. Louis, and the game was over after just one period. First-period goals from Milan Michalek, Jeremy Roenick and Brian Campbell, as well as another on a penalty shot by Patrick Marleau, provided ample offense in front of Evgeni Nabokov, and they cruised to their 11th straight victory, 4-1. Joe Thornton added two more assists to his league-leading total, and for the formerly-maligned Marleau, that's now eight points in the past nine games. David Backes managed the only shot to best Nabokov as he sailed to his league-leading 41st victory, stopping 20 of 21 shots. I can't imagine that anyone depending on Hannu Toivonen in fantasy would even be paying attention at this point of the season, but he made 23 saves on 27 shots.
The last of Friday's games was the closest, with a third-period, power-play goal being the deciding factor. How exciting! New York Ranger Brendan Shanahan came into the game tied with Teemu Selanne for most career goals scored against Tomas Vokoun (13 is the lucky number for both gents). Unfortunately for Ranger fans and Shanahan owners, that contest remains deadlocked, and the Panthers nudged by the Rangers 3-2. Olli Jokinen is the hero today in South Florida, as it was his shot that beat Henrik Lundqvist and won the game, and he was also the man who drew the penalty on Martin Straka to initiate the man advantage. He was joined in the scoring of a goal by teammates Rotislav Olesz and Jassen Cullimore. Both goaltenders in this contest fought valiantly, with Vokoun stopping 32 of 34 shots compared to Lundqvist, who stopped 27 of 30. Ranger goals came off of the sticks of Scott Gomez and Daniel Girardi, and that's now nine goals on the season for the second-year defenseman; perhaps his name should not be forgotten for next year's draft given the vacuum that exists after Michal Rozsival on the blue line at Madison Square Garden.
Tim Kavanagh is a fantasy hockey analyst for ESPN.com
