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Auld wins second straight as Panthers down Sabres

Dec 8, 2006 - 3:26 AM SUNRISE, Florida (Ticker) -- After a shaky stretch, perhaps Alex Auld is headed for some better fortune.

Auld made 17 saves in registering his second straight victory as the Florida Panthers posted a 3-1 triumph over the Buffalo Sabres.

Auld recorded 28 saves in Florida's 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday to snap a personal four-game skid.

"Obviously, it's a challenge to stay sharp, but I think the way the guys played tonight, I felt I owed it to them to be as sharp as I could be when I needed to be," Auld said. "It was a great team win."

Captain Olli Jokinen, defenseman Ric Jackman and Stephen Weiss scored for the Panthers, who won their second straight game following six consecutive losses.

"We came out pretty hard and we could have had a few in the first period, but it didn't happen," said Weiss, who has six goals this season. "But we stuck with it. We kept going after them. That was a big goal by Jacko (Jackman) to start the period."

Seeking his first goal of the season, Jackman trailed a 2-on-1 and picked up a loose puck in the slot before banging it past goaltender Ryan Miller to give Florida a 2-1 lead just 49 seconds into the third period.

"I kind of just shot it towards the net," Jackman said of the decisive tally. "I wasn't really aiming anywhere, I was just trying to put it on the net, and (thankfully) it went in. That was a big goal for our team and we just built off it. It was a huge win for us."

Daniel Briere scored the lone goal and Miller stopped 35 shots for Buffalo, which was outshot, 38-18. The Sabres fell to 3-2-1 in their last six.

"The teams are too good from top to bottom to take a night off like we did tonight," Briere said. "They played their system to a tee. They stayed within their limits, but at the same time, we never used our speed to make them move or go around them. This is the worst I've seen us look this season."

Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff agreed with his co-captain.

"They just weren't mentally ready to play," said Ruff, whose club was outshot, 17-3, in the first period. "Mentally, our heads weren't into it. We made some careless, lackluster plays. We thought the game was going to be easy. Our heads weren't in the right place.

"We had one guy who played tonight, and that was our goalie. There wasn't one other man who played on our team."

Briere, who recorded his first career hat trick in Buffalo's 4-1 triumph over Tampa Bay on Tuesday, has four goals in his last two games.