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Briere leads Sabres past Thrashers

Feb 7, 2007 - 3:09 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- After an off game, Daniel Briere picked up where he left off.

Briere scored a pair of power-play goals and added a tally in the shootout to lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers in a clash of division leaders.

Briere had a seven-game points streak snapped in a 3-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday but he got back on track eight minutes into the first period to open the scoring against Atlanta.

With the score tied, 2-2, in the third period, Briere added another power-play goal with 18:48 to play. The center now has seven goals and eight assists in his last nine games

Scott Mellanby netted the equalizer for Atlanta just over 10 minutes later, picking a pass from Marian Hossa out of the air and slamming it in for his 10th goal of the season.

Ryan Miller stopped Vyacheslav Kozlov and Hossa in the shootout while Briere and Ales Kotalik each beat Kari Lehtonen for the Northeast Division leading Sabres.

With the loss, the Thrashers dropped to 1-3-1 in their last five games and now head out for a season-long six-game road trip.