Sabres Classics: Sabres and Maple Leafs meet in playoffs for 1st time

It might be hard to believe that the Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs have only played each other in the postseason once. The rivalry has spanned 50 years and began right away when the brand new Sabres franchise hired former Maple Leafs executive Punch Imlach to be the team's first head coach and general manager.

Imlach came to Buffalo with a chip on his shoulder and before the team's first matchup against the Leafs in 1970, he hung a sign in his office that simply said, "Beat Toronto."

So by the time the Sabres and Maple Leafs met for the first time ever in the playoffs, the stakes couldn't have been higher. A berth in the Stanley Cup Final was on the line.

Game 1 of the 1999 Eastern Conference Finals was played in Toronto on May 23, 1999 and that game will be featured on "Sabres Classics" on MSG at 8 p.m. on Thursday.

Buffalo had swept the Ottawa Senators and defeated Ray Bourque's Boston Bruins to advance to the Conference Finals for the second straight year. Toronto beat the Philadelphia Flyers and then dismantled the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games each to reach the third round.

Sabres goaltender and reigning MVP Dominik Hasek was unavailable for Game 1 due to a groin injury so backup netminder Dwayne Roloson got the call between the pipes for the first postseason start of his career.

What transpired was a wild 5-4 victory for Buffalo to take a 1-0 series lead. Roloson made 28 saves and five different Sabres scored. Stu Barnes and Geoff Sanderson each scored their first of the playoffs.

Barnes snapped a 31-game goal drought tie the game 3-3 on the power play in the late stages of the second period. His last goal came on March 3, 1999 when he was still with Pittsburgh. The playoff tally marked his first goal with the Sabres. At that point in the playoffs, Buffalo had scored a power-play goal in every game.

In the third period, Curtis Brown scored what held up as the game winner and then Sanderson scored to give the Sabres a two-goal lead.

Roloson ended up appearing in four games for the Sabres in the 1999 Playoffs, accumulating a 1-1 record with a .851 save percentage and a 4.31 goals-against average. He had played only 18 games for Buffalo during the regular season and had 19:16 of playoff experience entering the series against Toronto. But there's no question that Roloson's strong start in Game 1 helped give Buffalo the edge they needed as the series progressed.