Sabres Classics: Memorable run comes to an end in Game 7

Jay McKee remembers arriving home following the Buffalo Sabres' overtime victory in Game 6 of the 2006 Eastern Conference Final and thinking they were going to win it all.

"I remember just having that feeling," McKee said. "We're winning the Cup."

McKee had no way of knowing he had just played his final game with the Sabres, a fact that would become apparent after he woke up that night with an intense pain in his leg.

Of course, even then it wasn't apparent immediately. McKee went to the hospital, where he learned his leg had been infected. Doctors told him that if the red discoloration advanced above his knee, they would have to amputate it.

"All I was thinking was, 'How do I convince them I can play tomorrow night?'" McKee said.

The next day, players were told upon boarding the team plane that McKee had experienced a family emergency and would meet them in Raleigh. When he still hadn't arrived the following morning, they were told he would fly in for the game.

All this was to protect the psyche of a team that had already overcome more than its fair share of injuries. Tim Connolly had been lost after an electric start to the playoffs. Three of the team's top six defensemen were injured in Dmitri Kalinin, Teppo Numminen, and Henrik Tallinder.

Daniel Briere believes to this day the Sabres would have won if not for those injuries. He also knows now that winning the Stanley Cup requires both skill and little bit of luck.

"That's one thing I realized over my years," he said, "is you need a good team and you also need those breaks on your side at the proper time."

Added McKee: "Fate was in Carolina's hands that year. You need some of that."

The Sabres went down swinging in Game 7. After Mike Commodore opened the scoring in the first period, Doug Janik and Jochen Hecht scored to give the Sabres a 2-1 lead in the second. Hecht's goal came with five seconds remaining in the period.

The game turned in the third. Doug Weight tied the score 1:34 into the period. Rod Brind'Amour scored what would stand as the winning goal with the Hurricanes on the power play after Brian Campbell received a delay of game penalty for flipping the puck over the glass in his own zone.

Carolina went on to win the Stanley Cup Final over Edmonton in seven games. The Sabres fell a few breaks short of their ultimate goal, but their run in 2005-06 remains a special memory in fans and players alike.

"How close we were to each other," J-P Dumont said when asked what he remembered most from that season. "Looking back at pictures and stuff that I have at home, that was something special for me."