1979 Playoffs: Pens take Game One from Sabres

Our look at the Penguins 1979 preliminary round playoff series against the Buffalo Sabres continues...

The Penguins of the late 70s and early 80s were never very rich in talent, but they often showed an impressive amount of determination and pride that carried them to some fine moments in the franchise's early history. A good example was Game One of the 1979 Preliminary Round series against the Buffalo Sabres.

The Sabres has finished three points ahead of the Pens in the regular season, earning them home ice advantage in the series. Pittsburgh entered the always-tough "Aud" in Buffalo without key injured players Pete Mahovlich, Russ Anderson, Wayne Bianchin and Dale Tallon. The Sabres twice built one-goal leads but the resilient Pens kept battling back. Riding the hot goaltending of Denis Herron, the team erased a 2-1 third-period deficit by exploding for three goals, including the winner by ex-Sabre Gary McAdam.

The Pens ability to overcome their injuries (they also lost forward Gregg Sheppard in the second when he his face was crushed into the boards on a Gerry (King Kong) Korab check) was "the sign of a good team," said blueliner Randy Carlyle in this game report from the next day's Pittsburgh Press. "You forget the injuries and just play hockey."

The Pens would now return to the comfortable confines of the Igloo to try to end the series in a sweep...

Pens meet Sabres in 1979 playoffs

Here's the first in a series of posts that will look at the Penguins 1979 preliminary round playoff series against the Buffalo Sabres...

The Penguins returned to the playoffs in 1979 after having been left out of the dance the previous year. At this point in the NHL's history the first round of the playoffs was a short and sweet best-of-three series. The Penguins opponent was the Buffalo Sabres, who finished three points better than Pittsburgh's 85, giving them home ice advantage.

On the eve of Game One at the venerable Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, the Beaver Valley Times offered up this article previewing the tilt, which detailed some of the Pens' injury woes. Notably, defencemen Dale Tallon and Russ Anderson were not available for the game. Starting goalie Denis Herron didn't seem worried by that: "We've played Buffalo before with injuries and it didn't seem to matter. The only thing that worries me is that this is the playoffs. That makes a big difference."

Ted Nolan, Pittsburgh Penguin

I was perusing some of the Penguins old media guides (all available on the Pens website, BTW) when I came across none other than current Sabres coach Ted Nolan in the 1985-86 publication. I had no idea Nolan had once skated for the Pens.

Before he went on to fame as the inspirational Buffalo bench boss during some of the team's most successful years in the late nineties, Nolan played a handful of games with Pittsburgh - 19 to be exact - totaling one goal, one assist and 34 penalty minutes.

Nolan's lone lamp-lighter came on December 2, 1985 during a Penguins 6-0 whitewashing of the Rangers in New York. This game report is unfortunately a grainy one, but does give a good description of Nolan's tally:

"Ranger defenseman James Patrick blocked Terry Ruskowski's shot, leaving a loose puck in the slot. Nolan rushed the net and pushed the puck by Scott."

This more recent piece has some nice reflections from Ted on his time in Pittsburgh.