PHILADELPHIA -- Greetings again from the rain-drenched City of Brotherly Love, where the Phillies-Marlins game scheduled for 7 p.m. has already been banged, giving us a traffic opening on the drive back to Baltimore for tomorrow morning's flight home. But we're not going anywhere until Game Two of the Sabres-Flyers series is in the books here at the Wells Fargo Center.
How huge is this one? When the Sabres take a 2-0 lead in a playoff series, they are 14-1 in their history. The only loss was in 1976, when they won the first two games at the Aud against the New York Islanders and dropped the next four. When they've won the first two on the road, the Sabres are 4-0.
Of course, as the Bruins found out last year, you can never count the Flyers out. This series would be far from over with a Buffalo win today, but the Sabres would certainly be well on their way.
If you missed it, be sure to check out the archive of our pregame live chat. We're doing one every game night, beginning 30 minutes prior to faceoff. I don't have a lot of literate thoughts today for some reason. Only one game in. Game on.
---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)
Lineup update: Sekera is in. Morrisonn and Persson are scratches.
Sabres starters: Gerbe-Gaustad-Kaleta-Butler-Myers. Goal: Miller
Flyers starters: Van Riemsdyk-Carter-Giroux-Meszaros-O'Donnell. Goal: Bobrovsky
First Period
5:10 p.m: After another sensational Lauren Hart-Kate Smith duo on God Bless America, the puck is dropped.
18:00 left: Love the Sabres' physicality so far. Gerbe pushed Van Riemsdyk on the opening draw. Kaleta pushed Carter to the ice after 40 seconds and Grier drilled Coburn behind the net at 18:36.
UPDATE: The live blog has been disrupted by Internet connection problems in Philadelphia. At the end of one period, the game is tied, 3-3. Get real-time scoring updates here.
