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Sturm's OT goal lifts Bruins

Nov 2, 2007 - 3:56 AM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- The bounces continue to go the way of Marco Sturm and the Boston Bruins at home.

The sight of the World Series trophy gave the Bruins an early lift and Sturm finished off the Buffalo Sabres with an overtime goal en route to a 4-3 victory Thursday night.

Sturm redirected a one-timer from the right point by defenseman Aaron Ward with 52 seconds remaining in the extra session to give the Bruins their fourth win in five home games this season.

"This is huge for us," said Ward, who had two assists. "It's the intangibles of the game. Teams hard on their luck don't win games like this. They don't get to the end of an overtime, it goes the other way, it's a bad bounce or ricochet off the boards and in the back of your net. Good bounces, I don't know, maybe it's good karma, but we seem to be doing the right things."

The Boston Red Sox owners showed their 2007 World Series trophy before the game at center ice, pumping up the fans at the TD Banknorth Garden and apparently providing an early spark for the Bruins, who scored the game's first two goals before the Sabres rallied twice to tie the game at 3-3 and force overtime.

The Bruins were the aggressors in the overtime and avoided a shootout when Glen Metroplit dug out the puck along the left wing boards and fed a cross-ice pass to Ward, who snapped a wrist shot toward the net.

"I was standing in front of the net and saw Ward shooting the puck, and I got the lucky tip there," Sturm said of the game-winner.

Sturm just got a stick on the puck waist-high, directing it past goaltender Ryan Miller for his fifth goal of the season.

"The (defensemen) were trying to fill as much space as possible, but obviously Ryan probably didn't see it as much as he'd like to," Buffalo's Paul Gaustad said. "It's a tough play, the game-winner there was a little bit of a fluky goal. It was a saucer pass five feet in the air and their D-man just one-timed from his forehand. Those are the bounces."

Buffalo forced the extra session with its second power-play goal of the night, as Gaustad redirected a pass from defenseman Jaroslav Spacek past netminder Tim Thomas at 8:18 of the third.

Thomas, who entered with a league-leading .957 save percentage, turned aside 27 shots.

"I think we are (getting an identity)," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "We're not giving much as far as scoring chances. Our goaltender is coming up big."

The loss snapped a two-game winning streak - both on the road - for the Sabres, who finished their five-game road trip 2-2-1.

"We're happy with some of the ways we played tonight," Sabres defenseman Brian Campbell said. "It's an all right road trip, not great. We didn't have our legs going at the start, but I thought once we got our legs going, we took it to them."

After a scoreless first period, Metropolit got the Bruins on the board at 2:07 of the second, when he took a pass from Marc Savard and beat Miller over his right shoulder with a slap shot from the slot.

"I got a good chance there on the power play and Savy made a great pass to me and I threw a Tim Wakefield knuckleball up there, top shelf," Metropolit said. "I got lucky, fortunate enough to get the chance and trying to make the most of it."

Phil Kessel doubled Boston's lead 5 1/2 minutes later, when he took a pass from Sturm on a 2-on-1 rush and wristed a shot that found its way between Miller's pads.

Buffalo got on the board with 2:29 remaining in the session, when Maxim Afinogenov buried the rebound of Thomas Vanek's shot. Both Vanek and Afinogenov were stationed in front of Thomas, giving the goalie no chance to gather the puck.

The Sabres evened the game at 2-2 early in the third, converting their second power-play chance of the night. Campbell scored his second of the season when his slap shot from the high slot beat Thomas between the pads at 2:09.

Boston went back on top 59 seconds later, when Savard's wrister beat Miller just underneath the crossbar.

Spacek and Ales Kotalik each had two assists for the Sabres.