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Moore, Harding lead Wild past Sabres

Mar 10, 2007 - 7:51 AM BUFFALO, New York (Ticker) -- Dominic Moore's first-period outburst gave the Minnesota Wild plenty of much-needed momentum.

Moore scored two goals in the opening session and Josh Harding made 35 saves for his second victory of the season as the Minnesota Wild skated to a 5-1 triumph over the Buffalo Sabres.

The Wild (38-24-7) raised their record to 12-3-2 in their last 17 road contests and moved into a three-way tie with the Dallas Stars (39-23-5) and San Jose Sharks (40-25-3) for fifth place in the Western Conference.

Acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins at last week's trade deadline, Moore scored his first two goals for the Wild, who were meeting the Sabres for the first time since December 11, 2005.

"I was very excited about coming here," Moore said. "It gave me a clean slate. I'm still trying to learn the system and working my way in gradually. I'm just trying to keep learning and gradually feel more comfortable here. It's a process."

"He had a great game," Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire said. "It seems like he fit there well, because he was the high man all the time and he had two good goals."

Moore gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead less than five minutes into the game on a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle. He doubled the advantage less than 10 minutes later, beating goaltender Ryan Miller to the glove side with a shot from the slot.

"Right away, when he scores first thing into a game, it's perfect," Minnesota right wing Marian Gaborik said. "It gives you confidence, and he got another one. You feel good on the ice."

Gaborik had a chance to widen the lead to 3-0 on a penalty shot in the second period after being pulled down by defenseman Nathan Paetsch. However, the Slovakian was denied on his opportunity by Miller, who made a right pad save.

"I tried to go fast and tried to shoot and go low blocker," Gaborik said. "He didn't have anything open, so I tried to deke him with his pad at the last second. He made a good save."

"I don't say this often, but this has to be the best game Gaborik played for his team," Lemaire said. "Defensively, offensive, the whole works."

Pavol Demitra scored his 22nd goal in the third by banking in the puck off the back of Miller's shoulder from behind the net. Four minutes later, blue-liner Keith Carney - a former Sabre - netted his third tally, prompting the Sabres to replace Miller with Ty Conklin.

Harding stopped 13 shots in the first period, 14 in the second and the first six he faced in the third before Michael Ryan scored with 3:59 remaining, ending the 22-year-old's bid for his second shutout of the season.

"It was incredible how much energy they had backchecking and taking second shots," Harding said. "Our offense was there. Guys stepped up and played as a team."

"Josh was very good," Lemaire said. "We were talking about Buffalo and said they'll get their chances. Our goalie will have to make the save if we wanted to stay in the game, and that's exactly what he did. He was very solid and played great the entire game."

Miller made 18 saves and Conklin turned aside nine shots for Buffalo (44-18-5), which remained three points ahead of idle New Jersey (41-19-8) for first place in the Eastern Conference.

"We didn't have a lot of high-quality opportunities," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "You get down to a team like that, you're going to gamble and you're going to give up some opportunities. In the third period, we were trying to run with it and get back in the game, but we didn't."

"We have a lot of firepower, everybody knows that," Sabres center Derek Roy said of his team, which leads the league with 254 goals. "I think it's just a matter of execution."