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Wednesday, May 09, 2001

By all indications, they were done. They were beaten and humiliated by a Buffalo defense that would not allow their elite offensive corps to do anything.

Everything the Penguins tried, goalie Dominik Hasek and his teammates stopped. Nothing worked. There was no magic left in those magical sticks as time wound down on their elimination.

Or so it seemed.

The Penguins had been shut down for so long it was almost forgotten that they had a player known to make miracles commonplace.

Mario Lemieux had been shut down almost to the point of embarrassment all series by the tenacious Buffalo defense. He had scored early in the first period of the first game and not again. Not again, that is, until the Penguins were one minute, 33 seconds from elimination in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

With goalie Johan Hedberg on the bench, the Penguins put the pressure on Hasek. A shot from the point by Alexei Kovalev took a crazy, high bounce. Some might call it the immaculate deflection.

When the puck came down, Lemieux was on it. But, wait, he fanned on the first attempt. Not to worry, he was on it again and whacked it past Hasek to tie the score, 2-2.

With momentum on their side, the Penguins won in overtime, 3-2, on a goal by Martin Straka and remain alive in the playoffs.

The teams meet in game seven tomorrow night at Buffalo. The winner will advance to the conference final where they will play the winner of tonight's game between New Jersey and Toronto.

It was the most bitter of defeats for the Sabres and one that could impact their play in Game 7. Their outstanding performance in the previous three games and for most of this one was rendered meaningless.

Early in the series, the Sabres seemed hopelessly outclassed. They lost the first two games at home and were outscored, 6-1.

But they would not go away. They came to Mellon Arena and won two games. They went back home and won a third. Victory was within their reach.

They took a 1-0 lead in the first period last night and a 2-1 lead in the second. They protected that lead with the ferocious defensive tactics that had marked their play in the previous three games.

They could almost smell the victory. They could almost touch it.

And why not? They had shut down the Penguins' forwards with dedication and hard work.

They had held Lemieux without a goal for more than 17 periods, a feat that might be considered almost impossible. The silencing of the Hall of Famer was the story line of this series.

But anyone who has followed his legendary career knows Lemieux is the one who performs the impossible and not the other way around.

The tying goal came after Lemieux had to be helped to the bench twice after being knocked to the ice by Buffalo players. Each time he slowly got to his feet and quickly returned to action.

In winning, the Penguins avoided duplicating the humiliation of last season when they won the first two games against Philadelphia and lost the next four.

A highlight of last night's victory was the way the Penguins played late in the game. The team that had been widely believed to be too tired to finish off the Sabres was the team that was the freshest in the closing minutes.

"Mario told us we had to keep playing hard," said Straka, who collected his second overtime winner.

With new life and the knowledge that the Sabres' defense can be had and that Hasek is good but not unbeatable, the Penguins head to Buffalo with a fresh look.

They are the team in charge. They are the team with the momentum. They are the team that has won two games in Buffalo.

The goal by Lemieux, the man who was ready to accept blame for this defeat, was the difference.

It all has a familiar ring. The Penguins led by Lemieux are alive in the playoffs.

Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.