One Down

                  

I can breath, and it is a normal in and out.  I swear!  Ok, so that is now, almost 3 hours after the final horn blew, but I am breathing normal :)  You all know how I was this morning, yes a basket case.  I was excited, nervous, confident, and scared.  A mixture of emotions.  Anticipation grew as the morning wore on.  I couldn't decide what to do, stay at home or go to my sisters.  I procrastinated that decision almost 'til game time, but I did end up going to my sisters.  I arrived before the drop of the puck and the snacks were set out.  My Bro in Law was chattering, and my sister was on the net.  On the net??  This, the same woman who never goes on line?  Never checks her mail?  AOL gets tired of holding it for her so they dump it?  She is online?  I thought I was bad!?!

 

The puck finally drops and I think I was holding my breath.  I couldn't get comfy.  Sliding forward in the chair, sitting back, legs crossed, up and down, turning this way and that.  I felt like a child in the movie theater.  I was waiting for someone to swat me and say 'sit still!'  It was kind of exciting as the game was in Carolina and you could hear chants of 'Lets go Buffalo.'  Definitely not home ice advantage if you ask me.  Tickets for our home games in this series sold out in 12 minutes.  In Carolina you could walk up to the gate and purchase multiple seats together shortly before the game started.  It was well known here that the games were not selling out, so... road trip!  Gawd I wish I could have.  When the 'Canes tickets first went on sale they blocked anyone from out of the area from getting tickets.  It was reported later it was so the home crowd could buy them.  I can't say for sure what that was all about, but I do know there were boat loads of Sabre fans in attendance.  Did I say boat loads?  LOL meant bus loads.

 

Three minutes in there was a nice little scramble in front of the net, one shot- save, two shot -save, and the rebound bounced out of traffic and here comes Henrik Tallinder, takes his shot and beats Cam Ward.  Buffalo scores first and is up 1-0.  I got up and paced a little as my heart started to beat regular and my breaths came in even puffs.  Ten minutes later Fitzpatrick loses the puck in our zone.  He hammers the guy coming in across the blue line and they both go down leaving Brind'Amour off to Miller's right.  He takes a shot and it goes in over the shoulder of Ryan.  Tied score 1-1.  The remainder of the period was up and down the ice.  Very few penalties and nice good play.  The second period starts and goes about 10 minutes with the same fast pace.  There is a scrum in front of our goal.  Miller gets the puck and clears it to Pyatt who quickly passes it on to Pominville.  Before you know it he spots Briere streaking down the ice and passes the puck to him.  A wiggle here, and jiggle there letting the back hand go and it's in the net.  'Top shelf where Mamma hides the cookies!'  Buffalo leads 2-1  We all cheered, laughed and gave each other high fives.  Our announcer is by far one of the best and hearing him scream his famous line 'top shelf where Mamma hides the cookies' always gets us going. 

 

The third period started and Carolina was pressing and pressing hard.  In the second period they were out shot 13-4 and they knew they had to do better to tie the game.  There was a ton of action in our zone and Ryan played awesome!  So well in fact I almost picked him as the hero again.  Eleven minutes into the third period there was a mysterious hold and a penalty was called.  The officiating today was so much better but for the life of me I could not find that hold.  No matter, we are down a guy and play goes on.  Our penalty killers have done awesome all day and I hoped this would be no different.  I am clock watching, both time in game and what was left in the penalty.  McKee comes out of the box and joins the play.  He's at the blue line and instead of shooting and does some fancy foot work and stick handling and moves to the middle before letting go the blast.  Wham, it's in!  A sigh of relief, we have a cushion.  3-1

 

Carolina made it interesting, fighting all the way.  With about 2 minutes left they scored short handed on a wacky bouncing shot and got within in 1.   They pulled their goalie for the extra attacker in the final minute but the boys held on and grabbed a 1-0 lead in the series.  Game 2 is Monday.... keep it up boys!