BUFFALO - The one big advantage that a home team has even before the puck is dropped is the energy that comes from the fans.

That is, if there are any fans.

Perhaps it was a sign of the economic times, or that the Buffalo franchise has been in league receivership even before owner John Rigas was charged with fraud in July, sending the team into a financial tailspin.

Whatever it was, there was no hometown advantage for the Sabres last night. HSBC Arena was nearly empty. The announced attendance was 10,140 and it looked like a lot less.

But it didn't matter. The Sabres didn't need the help.

Buffalo goalie Martin Biron held on to a tie until midway in the third period when Miroslav Satan jumped on a misplayed pass and beat Flyers goalie Roman Cechmanek for a 2-1 victory.

Cechmanek was solid throughout and made 29 saves.

The Flyers had several good chances through the first half of the third period - including a Simon Gagne breakaway attempt - but could not put one past Biron.

"I thought both goalies were solid tonight," Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "Buffalo had more team minutes than we did. I thought their team game was a little bit stronger than ours. They made fewer mistakes.

"We made the error on the second goal, which cost us...You've got it at 1-1, halfway through the third period, that's exactly where you want it on the road. We were the first team to crack.

"You're going to run into good goaltending. We had good goal-tending early, they had great goaltending in the second and halfway through the third, but we were the first team to crack. Their team game held together a little bit longer than ours did."

The crack came at the blue line when Eric Weinrich, who scored the Flyers' goal on a second-period power play, misplayed a pass. Satan picked it off, skated in alone and beat Cechmanek at 10 minutes, 42 seconds.

"I missed the pass," Weinrich said. "I had [Kim Johnsson] going wide and I missed it. I just kind of fanned on it."

The easy thing to do would be to hang the game on that one mistake. But that would not be fair.

The Flyers were told early that the Sabres would be coming at them and considering that they had lost the last four regular-season games against Buffalo, they were not ready.

They played flat in the first, took chances and strayed from the discipline that has marked the early season. The loss was the Flyers' first and leaves them at 3-1-2.

"Hitch has been telling us for 2 days that we have to be ready for this hockey game," center Keith Primeau said.

"We knew they were going to have a snarl on. They've had a couple of tough home losses and we knew they were going to be ready. For whatever reason, the first 20 minutes they completely outplayed us.

"If not for [Cechmanek] the game would be over in the first. He kept us in. We were better in the second, but in the third we made too many mistakes."

The Sabres scored first at 2:47 into the second on an odd deflection that started with a shot by Chris Gratton.

It appeared to be tipped by Taylor Pyatt, and then bounced in off of Vaclav Varada's arm.

The Flyers tied it at 1-1 on the power play. Weinrich ripped one from the blue line that clanged in off the crossbar.

The Flyers had a power play to end the period and had two good shots, but failed to convert.

The Flyers came at Biron hard during the first 10 minutes of the third, but he made all the saves and despite the lack of fan support, Buffalo fed off the energy from the goalie and capped the game with the Satan goal.

Commenting on the empty seats, Primeau said: "Sometimes negative press or a negative environment can turn people off. It doesn't change the product that they've got, just everything that kind of surrounds them.

"What happened with Mr. Rigas was unfortunate but a lot of people took it to heart. It was quiet, but they've obviously adjusted to life with smaller crowds and they did what they had to do and you have to give them credit for not allowing it to affect their play."