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Ladd, Antropov lead Winnipeg past Buffalo

Jan 20, 2012 - 6:02 AM Winnipeg, MB (Sports Network) - Andrew Ladd and Nik Antropov finished with a goal and an assist apiece, leading the Winnipeg Jets to a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres at MTS Centre.

Tobias Enstrom and Tim Stapleton also scored and Kyle Wellwood added a pair of assists for the Jets, who rebounded from a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday. Ondrej Pavelec stopped 25-of-26 shots in the victory for the Jets.

"I liked the fact that we won the game," Jets head coach Claude Noel said. "I thought we did the things necessary to get to them in the first period and I thought we put a lot of pucks at Miller, which was our intent."

Drew Stafford scored the lone goal, while Ryan Miller was tagged for all four goals on 33 shots in the loss for Buffalo, which has lost four consecutive games.

"They have a good first ten minutes at the majority of their home games," said Miller. "They have some speed, and I just had to kinda weather the storm. I was prepared to do that. I thought we could get out of there without a goal against. Couldn't get a stick on one, and it put us behind."

Winnipeg opened the scoring at 11:34 of the first period when Ladd tipped home a shot off the stick of Ron Hainsey at the right point to give the Jets the 1-0 lead.

Buffalo answered at 4:17 of the second frame when Nathan Gerbe picked up the puck in the neutral zone and raced in on a 2-on-1 with Stafford. Gerbe held the puck until he reached the slot, then fed Stafford, who ripped a quick wrister past an out-of-position Pavelec to tie the game at one.

But, Winnipeg re-took the lead at 12:55 of the second period on the power play after Enstrom got a feed from Little at the point and fired a wicked slap shot past Miller to put the Jets back on top, 2-1.

The Jets extended their lead to 3-1 at 3:46 of the third period with another power-play tally after Ladd sent a nifty pass to Antropov in the right circle. Antropov then found Stapleton unchecked and the rugged forward chipped it into the open net.

Antropov capped the scoring with 1:20 to play in regulation when he backhanded it past Miller from the left of the net off a nice feed from Wellwood.

Game Notes

Thursday marked the third meeting of the season between the teams...The Sabres are 7-9-7 all-time on the road against Winnipeg...Miller fell to 12-3-5 all- time in 22 games against Winnipeg...The Jets finished 2-for-4 on the man advantage, while the Sabres failed to score on two power play chances...Buffalo will visit the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, while the Jets will host the Florida Panthers, also on Saturday.