Sabres vs Flyers | Game 7 Prediction & Pick

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Buffalo Sabres at Philadelphia Flyers
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at 7:00 pm EST on Versus

Spread: Philadelphia Flyers: -1.5
Money Line: Buffalo +140 / Philadelphia -160
Over/Under: 5.5

It is a best-of-one series as the Buffalo Sabres and the Philadelphia Flyers square-off in Game 7 of their first round Eastern Conference playoff matchup this Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Game time is set for 7 p.m. (ET) and it will be broadcast nationally on VERSUS.

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Buffalo fell behind 2-1 in this series, but took control with a 1-0 shutout in Game 4 as a 108 home favorite and a dramatic 4-3 overtime win this past Friday as a 142 road underdog. The Sabres were unable to wrap things up in Game 6 on Sunday as they fell to Philly 5-4 in overtime as a 109 home favorite. They won the first game of this series 1-0 on the road as a 140 road underdog, but dropped the next game 5-4 as a 146 road underdog and Game 3 by the score of 4-2 as a 116 home favorite.

The back-and-forth nature of this series has experienced long scoring droughts followed by goals being scored left and right. Thomas Vanek, who led Buffalo with 32 goals in the regular season, has scored five in this series and three in the last two games. Defenseman Marc-Andre Gragnani has come up big with six assists and four other players each have four points for the Sabres. Injuries have taken their toll on Buffalo as right winger Jason Pominville remains doubtful after cutting his leg in Game 5 and center Tim Connolly left Sunday’s game after hitting the boards with his head. He is also listed as doubtful for Tuesday.

Much of the Sabres’ chances in this game rest on the shoulders of goalie Ryan Miller, who is the primary reason that Buffalo has been able to push this series to seven games. He has a goals-against-average of 2.61 and a .925 save percentage, which is slightly better than his .916 regular season average. He stopped an amazing 44 shots in Game 6.

Philadelphia lives to play another day because of left winger Ville Leino’s overtime goal in Game 6, but it is Danny Briere and Claude Giroux who deserve most of the credit. Briere leads the team with five goals and Giroux leads in assists with six. Center Jeff Carter, who scored a goal and an assist in the first four games has been ruled out for Tuesday’s game with a sprained ACL, but defenseman Chris Pronger returned to action in Game 6 for the first time in this series.

Coach Peter Laviolette’s revolving door at goalie took another twist when he sent Brian Boucher to the bench in Game 5 in favor of Michael Leighton. Boucher replaced Sergei Bobrovsky in Game 2, who was named the series starter after a solid regular season. Boucher then replaced Leighton in Game 6 and is expected to get the start on Tuesday. He has a GGA of 2.12 and a .935 save percentage in this series.

Buffalo is 19-18 as an underdog this season and Philadelphia is 36-27 as a favorite. Head-to-head, these two teams split their four regular season games with each winning once at home and once on the road. The total has gone ‘over’ in eight of the 10 games this season and in four of the six games in this series.

he odds makers have the Philadelphia Flyers as a -1.5 point favorite with an over/under of 5.5.

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Prediction: This one will come right down to the wire as the first six have, but stick with Philadelphia to find a way to pull out the victory on home ice.

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