Sabres Edge Flyers As Miller Shuts Out Philadelphia (Series Tied 2-2)

You have to wonder at times why people in Buffalo even doubt Ryan Miller. Sure, he has his shaky moments once in a while but most of the time, he comes up big when it counts. Add Wednesday night's performance to his list of great games as the Sabres shutout the Flyers 1-0 to tie up the best of seven series at 2-2.

Buffalo had a nice start to the game as they had a lot of chances early in the first period. Jason Pominville opened the scoring for the Sabres when he scored on a tic-tac-toe goal to put the Sabres up 1-0.

It was a great play as Ennis got the puck behind the Flyers net, quickly passed it to Rob Niedermayer who relayed it to a wide open Jason Pominville in front of the Flyers net who cashed it in from two feet away.

The Sabres continued to put pressure on for the rest of the period but failed to score. Brad Boyes and Tyler Myers both hit the post in the period.

In the second period, both teams kept getting chances, but nothing resulted out of it. With three seconds left in the period, Mike Richards took a five minute major penalty for elbowing Patrick Kaleta.

The Sabres failed to score on the five minute power play but that didn't mean that the power play wasn't important. It helped kill five minutes off the clock in the third period while forcing the Flyers captain to sit in the penalty box.

The rest of the third period was exciting but no one on either team scored as the Sabres went on to win 1-0.

Ryan Miller was fabulous once again as he made 32 saves for his second shutout of the series and his third career postseason shutout. Miller made many keys saves late including stuffing Daniel Briere all alone in front of the net and stopping Mike Richards on a partially open net.

The Sabres didn't generate a ton of chances but they played very discipline defense and stood up for one another. The Sabres best chance in the third period was when Tyler Ennis broke loose and just failed to score on a partial breakaway.

With the win, the Sabres have tied up the series with Philadelphia at 2-2. Game 5 is Friday at 7:30pm.

Attendance: 18,690

Series: Tied 2-2

Interesting Note: Wednesday nights 1-0 win was the Sabres second 1-0 win of the series.

Key Stat: The team that has scored the first goal is 4-0 in this series.

Three Stars:

1st- Ryan Miller (Buffalo)

2nd- Brian Boucher (Philadelphia)

3rd- Tyler Myers (Buffalo)

Sabres/Flyers Prediction

After much deliberating, I am going to pick the Flyers to win this series in seven games. This was a tough pick but a pick that had to made.

Whenever, I go with my heart, I am more at risk of being mistaken on my predictions. However, when picking with my head, I am right more often than I am wrong. This is why I am picking the Flyers.

I do think that the Sabres have a chance to win this series though. The Sabres are by far the hotter team entering the playoffs having gone 8-1-1 their last ten games and 16-4-4 their last 24 games. On the contrary, Philadelphia is 9-9-7 their last 25 games.

This is a tough series to pick for many reasons. While Buffalo has the edge in goaltending, Philly has a very dynamic offense.

It will come down to one of two things:

1. Who has the more explosive offense?

2. Which team gets the better goaltending?

While Buffalo has a clear edge in goaltending, I think this series will come down to goal scoring. Philadelphia has an elite offense and has gone far in the playoffs in recent years. I think the Flyers will score enough goals to neutralize the impact that star goaltending will make on this series.

Prediction: Flyers in seven games