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Toews, Blackhawks shock Sabres with late goals

Apr 4, 2015 - 3:39 AM Buffalo, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Just like that, Jonathan Toews and the Chicago Blackhawks ended the Buffalo Sabres' first winning streak in more than a month.

The Sabres, after mounting a nice comeback, will remain in the NHL basement.

Toews scored 47 seconds apart near the end of the third period to lift Chicago to a 4-3 win over Buffalo on Friday night.

The Blackhawks captain tied the score at 18:17 of the period and then netted the winner at 19:04 to shock the Sabres, who had rallied from a 2-0 deficit with three consecutive goals.

"Obviously we're not happy that we let them control the game (starting) about halfway through, but we took over late in the game and we created more chances," said Toews.

Duncan Keith and Patrick Sharp also scored and Scott Darling made 35 saves for the playoff-bound Blackhawks, who have won four in a row to move within a point of first place in the Central Division with four games remaining.

Chicago clinched a sixth consecutive playoff berth with a 3-1 win over Vancouver on Thursday.

The Sabres entered the game off their first back-to-back wins since Feb. 24 and 26. Two goals by Marcus Foligno and one from Johan Larsson gave them the lead with 7:18 remaining.

But Toews scored on a rebound off Keith's shot, batting in a backhand as he fell to the ice, and then beat Anders Lindback again with a wrist shot to give the Blackhawks the lead.

Lindback allowed four goals on 36 shots for the Sabres, who remain last in the NHL with 52 points and only four games remaining.

"You have to take it with a grain of salt," Buffalo coach Ted Nolan said of the loss. "You have a guy in Toews who's won just about every championship there is to win. ... Those are learning curves that we're going to go through."

A faceoff win by the Sabres led to their first goal after Rasmus Ristolainen, who had three assists, flipped a shot on net and Foligno buried the rebound from in front of the crease 13:10 into the second period.

Larsson tied the score at 2-2 on a power play 5:29 into the third period when he redirected Ristolainen's shot over Darling and into the top of the net.

Foligno scored his second goal after gloving the puck out of the air in the crease and putting in his own rebound to give Buffalo a 3-2 lead 12:42 into the third period.

It was the eighth goal of the season for Foligno, who snapped a 23-game goal drought.

Keith and Sharp both beat Lindback glove-side in the first period to give the Blackhawks a 2-0 lead -- Keith on a slap shot from the point at 2:16 and Sharp on a wrister at 8:36 that squeezed under the goaltender's arm.

Game Notes

The Blackhawks beat the Sabres 6-2 on Oct. 11 in Chicago and have won the last seven meetings between the teams ... Chicago hosts St. Louis on Sunday ... Buffalo visits the New York Islanders on Saturday.