Sabres try to rebound in Game 4 vs. Flyers

By Dan Di Sciullo


The Buffalo Sabres will try to bounce back from a home loss and tie their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series at two games apiece when they host the second-seeded Philadelphia Flyers for Game 4 tonight at HSBC Arena.


After taking Game 1 in Philadelphia, the seventh-seeded Sabres have been dealt consecutive losses to fall behind 2-1 in this best-of-seven series. Buffalo dropped a 5-4 decision in Saturday's road test and the Sabres were then dealt a 4-2 setback in their first home game of the series on Monday.


Meanwhile, the Atlantic Division champions Flyers would like to make it three straight wins in this series tonight to give themselves a shot at closing the set out when the clubs meet in Philadelphia for Game 5 on Friday.


Brian Boucher started his first game in net in this series on Monday, but the Flyers netminder also picked up his second win of the 2011 postseason. After rookie Sergei Bobrovsky had started the first two contests, Boucher made 20 stops on 21 shots in a relief role to help the Flyers win Game 2 and then posted 35 saves to record the Game 3 victory.


In fact, Bobrovsky, who went 28-13-8 for Philly this season, did not even suit up for the Flyers on Monday after getting replaced by Boucher in the first period of Game 2. Michael Leighton served as the backup to Boucher in Game 3 and is expected to take on that role again tonight.


Leighton went 8-3 for Philadelphia during last spring's run to the Stanley Cup Finals.


Boucher turned aside 11 shots in the third period on Monday and helped the team kill off a long 5-on-3 penalty.


"We talked about Ryan Miller stealing a game for them in the first one and that was Boucher for us tonight," said Flyers forward Danny Briere. "Especially in the first period we had a lot of bad turnovers but Brian was able to keep us in the game."


Nikolay Zherdev scored the game-winner for the Flyers in Game 3 after being inserted into the lineup to replace injured forward Andreas Nodl. Zherdev had 16 goals in 56 games for Philadelphia during the regular season, but was a healthy scratch in the first two tests of this series.


Nodl is expected to miss tonight's game, as is defenseman Chris Pronger, who is still recovering from surgery to repair his fractured right hand. Pronger, who skated in just 50 games for Philly this season, is considered day-to-day, but will likely sit out tonight.


Briere and Jeff Carter each had a goal while Kimmo Timonen added an empty- netter for the Flyers on Monday.


Drew Stafford and Nathan Gerbe each had a goal while Ryan Miller stopped 22- of-25 shots in the loss for the Sabres, who were just 1-for-6 on the power play in the contest.


Sabres defenseman Jordan Leopold, who sat out the previous 10 games dating back to the regular season with a broken bone in his left hand, played in Game 3 and finished minus-one with two shots.


The Flyers are 18-3 all-time when leading a series two games to one and Philadelphia has never lost a series in which they led the Sabres at any point. Philly has taken five of its eight all-time playoff series against Buffalo.


Buffalo was 21-16-4 as the home club this season. Philadelphia set a franchise record with 25 road wins this year and ended the season with a 25-11-5 mark as the guest.