Philadelphia Flyers comeback to take Buffalo Sabres in overtime 5-4 -NHL Update
The situation looked bad for Philadelphia as Buffalo took a commanding, 3-0, lead as the final 23 seconds remained in the opening period, but as the Flyers answered with four straight, they made a miraculous comeback to take down the Sabres in overtime,
5-4, on Wednesday night, December 7, 2011, at the sold-out First Niagara Center in Buffalo, New York, United States.
Ville Leino got the first for Buffalo midway through the opening period during their second power play opportunity of the night which triggered a home team shooting spree followed by Zack Kassian and Thomas Vanek on another added man advantage.
Maxime Talbot potted the first nearly 20 seconds after Vanek’s 13th of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season to finally put the visitors on the scoreboard.
"That's the type of team we are, we don't quit," said Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux. "We have a lot of character, and we're having a lot of fun here. The second period we played our game, and the third period, too."
Matt Read, Scott Hartnell and Jaromir Jagr followed up the momentum with three straight to dominate the second period and take the lead for Philadelphia entering the third and final period of regulation but just as the Flyers were ready to take the two points,
Drew Stafford gave Buffalo the equaliser and another chance in OT.
"It's something you don't want to do, get behind three goals, because sooner or later it's going to come back and become a bad loss," Hartnell said. "But there was lots of hockey left, and we kept going. As the game went on, we got stronger and stronger."
Luckily, Giroux got a breakaway chance during the overtime extension and fired off unassisted for his 16th of the season with less than three minutes to go until the buzzer indicating a shootout decider sounded.
Philadelphia are now on a three-game winning streak and will definitely look forward to extending that once they begin their two-game home stand against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday and Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
Buffalo will be playing the Florida Panthers on Friday at home.
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