Posted on 5/14/2007 2:46:48 PM

NHL Playoffs Betting - Sabres Hit Ottawa

By Curt Staley

The Ottawa Senators entered the third round of the NHL playoffs with the worst Stanley Cup odds – the Sens were listed at +250, while each of the Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, and Anaheim Ducks were pegged at +225. However, the Senators ignored those odds and went out and grabbed a 2-0 advantage in the Eastern Conference final.

More impressively, those two Ottawa wins both came on the road.

In Game 1 at HSBC Arena in Buffalo last Thursday Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza, and Dean McAmmond all picked up a goal and an assist as Ottawa grabbed a 5-2 victory. The Senators took a 2-0 lead in that game, saw the Sabres tie it up halfway through the second period, and then surged for three unanswered goals in the third to get the win.

Mike Fisher and Oleg Saprykin also scored for the Senators. Maxim Afinogenov and Toni Lydman replied for Buffalo. Ottawa goaltender Ray Emery had a slow night between the pipes, as he only faced 20 Sabres shots. Ryan Miller was busier at the other end of the ice, as he was forced to make 29 saves in the team’s Game 1 defeat.

 

Game 2 on Saturday night saw the Sabres jump out to a 2-0 lead before the first period was halfway over. Thomas Vanek and Jochen Hecht were the early goal-scorers for Buffalo, but the advantage they gave their team was cut in half when Alfredsson picked up his eighth marker of the postseason with just over five minutes left in the first frame.

Ottawa then tied up the contest off a goal by Mike Fisher shortly into the second, and the Sens took a 3-2 lead with a Wade Redden power-play tally at the end of the period. The score remained 3-2 until Daniel Briere tapped one past Emery with just six seconds left in the game. The first overtime period solved nothing, but Joe Corvo gave the Sens a 4-3 victory and a 2-0 lead in the set with a goal at 4:58 of the second overtime frame.

Emery stopped 34-of-37 shots for Ottawa in the victory, including all nine he faced in the two overtime periods. Miller picked up 28 saves in the contest, including ten in overtime.

The Sabres (+135) will now have to win at least one of the next two games in Ottawa (-155), else they can start setting up tee times.

Game 3 will get underway at 7:00pm ET on Monday night at Scotiabank Place, while Game 4 is set for 7:00pm ET on Wednesday night. Should Buffalo manage to get a victory in Ottawa, the two teams would play Game 5 back in Western New York on Saturday afternoon. Game 6, if required, would be played in Ottawa next Monday, with a deciding Game 7 scheduled for Wednesday in Buffalo.

 

So how well have the Sabres played on the road so far during the postseason? In the first round Buffalo went 2-0 against the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum, winning Game 3 by a final score of 3-2 and Game 4 by a final score of 4-2. That Game 3 win in particular was a big one – the Islanders had taken Game 2 to tie the series 1-1.

In the second round against the New York Rangers the Sabres went just 1-2 at Madison Square Garden. Ryan Miller and company quickly went up 2-0 in that series, but then lost Game 3 (2-1, in double overtime) and Game 4 (2-1, in regulation time) on the road. Buffalo, though, squeezed out a victory at home in Game 5, and then went back to Madison Square Garden and got a 5-4 win to advance to the Eastern Conference final.

So overall the Sabres are just 3-2 away from HSBC Arena in the playoffs, but twice they did manage to get crucial road victories (Game 3 vs. the Islanders, Game 6 vs. the Rangers). Ottawa, though, has gone 4-1 at Scotiabank Place so far during the playoffs, most recently beating the New Jersey Devils twice at home during the second round.

The Sens (-155) are solid favorites in Game 3 on Monday night; if Buffalo (+135) is to get back into the series, they’ll need to pick up that third crucial road victory as an underdog team.

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