Game 2 is in Buffalo on Saturday afternoon. The Sabres would be well-advised to stop taking target practice on The Penguin. And to cover Lemieux. Three and a half minutes earlier, Miroslav Satan had cut to the slot and taken a screen shot that screamed off the left post behind Hedberg and bounced harmlessly away. A pair of clinks, one unkind to Buffalo and one amicable to Pittsburgh, were essentially the difference in the first game of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Bad breaks are as much a part of the Stanley Cup playoffs as hot goaltenders.
Like Roman Cechmanek, don't call him kid. He'll be 28 on the day of Game 5 in Buffalo. If there is one. Hedberg made a few spectacular saves, his best coming on Patrick in the third period when he did the splits and got his left glove on the defenseman's one-timer from the top of the crease. But there were few rebounds to contend with, and many of the Sabres' wild forays around the Pittsburgh crease didn't produce a single clean-cut chance.