Published: March 19, 2008 11:02 pm            

TIM SCHMITT: Miracle leaves Sabres with a pulse

Too bad the folks at Niagara Falls Memorial’s Heart Center couldn’t have forecasted the way Wednesday’s second intermission played out.

Could have been a perfect advertising tie-in.

Seconds after the Buffalo Sabres were booed off the ice — a period in which the hosts managed just two shots on net and fell behind 4-1 — the media scurried to the back of the HSBC Arena press box to hear Darcy Regier make it official:

A team that had shown little heart and an organization that clearly has none will regain the services of a defenseman with a bad one.

And that’s when the miracle happened.

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

Somehow, somewhere, with little rhyme or reason, the Sabres’ playoff chances showed a surprising pulse with a third period that nearly put fans into cardiac arrest. And all on the night that Teppo Numminen and his bad ticker was cleared to practice.

First it was Jason Pominville, a guy who’s shown all year that his heart’s in the right place. Captain Consistency — yes, I’m patenting the phrase — went hard to the front of the net and got his second of the night, redirecting a Paul Gaustad pass.

The sellout crowd hadn’t settled back into their seats when Jochen Hecht made it a one-goal game just 16 seconds later.

Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump.

When Thomas Vanek got a piece of Derek Roy’s high shot, and it hit the twine behind Karri Ramo, those who’d booed before the intermission had a new outlook — maybe this team hasn’t flatlined just yet.

“We deserved it,” Derek Roy said of the less-than-supportive sendoff the Sabres got. “The fans here want to see us play hard and work hard. We deserve that. We didn’t work as hard as we probably should have. But I thought we responded.”

To say the least.

Roy said the mood inside the locker room just before the resurrection was down, but not out.

“We were just talking about how we know we could come back in the game. We’ve done this to this team before at home. We were just talking about doing the little things, getting pucks to the net and making plays,” Roy said. “I thought in the second period we were a little fancy with plays and we weren’t getting shots through.”

The third was much more simple — the Sabres came out flying and had Tampa goalie Karri Ramo shaking in his skates by the period’s midway point. Buffalo was good, but Ramo was horrible. And it couldn’t have come at a better time for the Sabres.

Letting two points get away to the lowly Tampa Bay Lightning would have nearly finished the Sabres off, especially since both Philadelphia and Washington won on Tuesday.

After an incredible finish, though, they’re still alive.

“It’s a great two points,” Vanek said. “If we would have dropped this game tonight, three weeks from now we would have probably looked back at this game and said, ‘Oh wow, this one really cost us.’ But we took care of business. It wasn’t the pretty way, but it counts as two points.”

Contact group sports editor Tim Schmitt at 282-2311, ext. 2266.

        

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