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Sabres edge Devils in SO, get Ruff a win in 1,000th game

Nov 11, 2010 - 4:51 AM Newark, NJ (Sports Network) - Derek Roy scored the decisive goal in the fourth round of the shootout, as the Buffalo Sabres edged the New Jersey Devils, 5-4, at Prudential Center.

After Roy beat New Jersey goaltender Johan Hedberg with a nifty backhander, Devils high-priced forward Ilya Kovalchuk never even attempted a shot on goal, losing control of the puck as he skated towards Buffalo netminder Jhonas Enroth.

Roy scored a goal in regulation and assisted on another, while Enroth finished with 28 saves.

"I thought we came out with a lot of fire," Roy said. "We got a lot of pucks to the net. We worked tremendously hard in our end and we capitalized on some opportunities. I thought our power play was great, Jhonas played great for us, it was a real team effort."

Tyler Myers registered a goal and two assists for Buffalo, which made Lindy Ruff a winner in the 1,000th regular-season game of his coaching career. He became 18th coach in NHL history to reach that milestone and only the third to do so with one team, joining Billy Reay (1,012 with Chicago) and Al Arbour (1,500 with the New York Islanders).

Jason Pominville and Tyler Ennis also scored for the Sabres, who snapped a five-game winless streak with a shootout victory at Toronto on Saturday and won consecutive games for the first time this season.

Jason Arnott scored twice for the Devils, who remain winless at home in seven tries this season (0-5-2).

"It's nice to score, especially at home, we haven't done a lot of that," Arnott said. "It's a confidence booster for us. Everybody contributed tonight but we had that lapse of a few minutes and they were right back in the game again. You have to learn from that and be ready to go again."

Hedberg, starting in place of Martin Brodeur, stopped 38 shots. Brodeur missed his second straight game with a bruised right elbow.

Arnott backhanded the rebound of a Patrik Elias shot to give New Jersey a 1-0 lead at 10:12 of the first period.

The Sabres seized the lead with two goals in a 13-second span early in the middle stanza. Pominville collected a loose puck in the high slot and beat Hedberg with a wrister over his glove at 5:22. Roy made it 2-1 when he unloaded a slap shot from the left point.

David Clarkson redirected Alexander Vasyunov's centering pass behind Enroth to tie the game a little over two minutes later. Arnott then netted a power-play goal to put the Devils ahead at 12:01 of the second period.

Buffalo pulled even when Rob Niedermayer fed Myers and he beat Hedberg with 6:10 to play in the frame. The Devils, though, grabbed their third lead of the game when Jamie Langenbrunner's pass to Travis Zajac deflected in off Buffalo defenseman Chris Butler with 1:59 left in the period.

It was 4-4 after Ennis tapped in Myers' feed from behind the net at 8:54 of the third period.

Game Notes

Devils forward Mattias Tedenby made his NHL debut...Elias and Andy Greene both had two assists for New Jersey...Buffalo has taken two of three from New Jersey this season.