Hi hi, hi ho, it's off to the playoffs we go! (whistles) Hi ho, hi ho, hi ho hi ho!

Buffalo 3, Toronto 2 (SO)

It’s ugly, but we’ll take it.

The Buffalo Sabres found themselves clinching a playoff berth today after defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 in a shootout, snapping a 1-7-1 slide that saw them fall from within a point of catching the Northwest Division-leading Ottawa Senators to their current position, still firmly in fourth and nine points back.

“It was a relief to get that one point and clinch a playoff spot,” Buffalo goaltender Martin Biron told ESPN. “Even though this last stretch was a bad one, the biggest stretch of the year is coming up in three weeks. That's really important.”

The Sabres were the first to get out of the gate, ringing up a 7-2 shot advantage on the Leafs midway through the first and appearing to get two goals by the time the period was half done. Derek Roy scored his 16th goal of the season after redirecting an errant Ales Kotalik shot that had gone off the boards into the net past Toronto goaltender Jean-Sebastein Aubin, but a goal was nullified later in the period after Adam Mair was shoved into Aubin forcing the puck in with him (the referees had ruled they had called the play dead at that point). The missed goal was only one in a series of questionable calls during the game on both sides, from penalties that shouldn’t have been called (Chris Drury’s trip) to ones that should have (Ian White was once tripped with no call, and there was the Darcy Tucker knee-on-knee hit on Jochen Hecht that had Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff infuriated, although the play that started it was haphazard- Mike Grier did hit Tucker first, so it’s not like the Sabres were off the hook).

The first period ended 1-0, as the life the Sabres had was shorn from some erratic and frankly too eager play that Buffalo had been known for all season. Buffalo managed to show a fury of life on the power-play midway through the second- resulting in Maxim Afinogenov’s 20th goal of the season- but let the game start to slip away when Toronto’s John Pohl- a call-up- scored to cut the lead to 2-1. Buffalo’s flopping and flailing ways- continued into the third, where Matt Stajan capitalized on some brutal defensive work to tie the game up at two, giving Toronto a life they shouldn’t have had. The Sabres shouldn’t allow games to be this close when they claim to be a playoff contender, and, if they want to go far in the playoffs, they need find a way to develop the killer instinct. Of course, to their credit, the Leafs were also showing a lack of execution, as they had multiple chances but failed to convert (a common complaint this season about the Maple Leafs). It should also be noted that Biron stood on his head and that will be an asset come playoff time, but Buffalo can’t **only** rely on its goaltender if it wants to succeed.

In overtime, Buffalo outplayed the Leafs but barely, garnering the overtime’s best chance when Daniel Briere stood all alone jamming the puck at the impregnable Aubin. Since overtime solved nothing the teams went to the shootout, where Afinogenov potted the only goal and Biron stood on his head to deny Mats Sundin and Tucker. Alexei Ponikarovsky- not known for his stickhandling- tried to deke out Biron but only met his right pad, with the puck stopped on the goal line (this was reviewed but the decision stood). The result gave Buffalo its first playoff berth since 2001, which is about time.

The game was endemic of both teams’ seasons. Toronto proved time and again it had the talent to be a top-level team but also showed it lacked the execution and the management to get there (there’s no reason why Ponikarovsky- who had never scored in the shootout- should have been picked for the shootout, because he was bound to fail, which he did). Buffalo, meanwhile, was erratic and haphazard, being the kind of team that may not overwhelm anyone but still finds a way to succeed in the end. I’m not yet convinced that my Sabres are Stanley Cup material yet- since they need a game-breaker to stop their over-reliance on goaltending- but, with three weeks to go before the post-season, there’s still time to gel to post-season form. When they do, this’ll be a team that’ll be fun to watch and impossible to stop, as they’ve got enough youthful energy to keep pounding away at teams relentlessly. It’s about time- I’ve been waiting for this moment for far too long.

-DG