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Perrin helps Thrashers gain revenge on Sabres

Feb 2, 2008 - 5:18 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Less than a month after being drubbed in Buffalo, the Atlanta Thrashers gained a measure of revenge.

Defenseman Tobias Enstrom tied the game late in the third period and Eric Perrin scored the lone goal in the shootout as the Thrashers skated to a 5-4 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday.

Captain Bobby Holik had a goal and an assist and Mark Recchi and Jim Slater also scored for Atlanta, which suffered an embarrassing 10-1 loss to Buffalo at HSBC Arena on January 18.

"We wanted this tonight," Perrin said. "I don't think we wanted to go into overtime or a shootout, but we really wanted to put it on them and get some payback."

Jochen Hecht, Jason Pominville, Daniel Paille and defenseman Dmitri Kalinin tallied and Derek Roy recorded two assists for the Sabres, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.

"We took some stupid penalties that cost us the game," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "We made some mental mistakes that we couldn't afford."

Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller, who made 18 saves, left the game after two periods with a "lower body" injury after Atlanta's Chris Thorburn fell on him in the second. Miller is listed as day-to-day.

After squandering a 2-0 lead in the second period, the Thrashers found themselves trailing by a goal in the final minute of the third. But Clarke MacArthur and blue-liner Toni Lydman were called for penalties 35 seconds apart and Atlanta pulled goaltender Johan Hedberg for an extra attacker, giving the club a 6-on-3 advantage.

"When Buffalo went up 4-3, I still felt like we had good life on the bench," Thrashers coach Don Waddell said. "Guys were positive and stuck with it."

It took just four seconds for the Thrashers to cash in. After Holik won a faceoff in the right circle, All-Star Marian Hossa got the puck to Enstrom, who slapped it past netminder Jocelyn Thibault from just above the slot with 18 seconds left in the period to forge a 4-4 tie.

"I didn't see the puck until the last second," Thibault said. "The puck was coming in. I was trying to get a view of it. I wish I had enough time to see it."

"It's fun to score goals, but it's more important to win games," said Enstrom, who participated in the YoungStars Game during All-Star Weekend at Philips Arena. "It's a good feeling to tie the game up, and we won in the shootout."

Following a scoreless overtime, neither team was able to break through during the first three rounds of the shootout. But on Atlanta's fourth opportunity, Perrin made a nifty deke to his backhand before pulling the puck to his forehand and sliding it around Thibault.

"I tried those moves in the old (International Hockey League), and it worked out every once in a while," said Perrin, who played in the older version of that league from 1997-2000. "So I decided to go for it."

Thomas Vanek was Buffalo's last chance, but the 24-year-old Austrian shot the puck high and wide, clinching Atlanta's second straight win.

Recchi celebrated his 40th birthday in style, opening the scoring at 5:58 of the first period with a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot that found the top right corner of the net. Holik doubled the lead less than three minutes later, beating Miller from the slot after a pass from behind the net by former Sabre Vyacheslav Kozlov at 8:19.

But Buffalo pulled even with goals 81 seconds apart midway through the second period.

Hecht deflected defenseman Jaroslav Spacek's one-timer from the right point past Hedberg during a power play at 7:55, drawing the Sabres within 2-1.

Less than two minutes later, Lydman attempted to dump the puck into the left corner. But it took a strange bounce off the left wing boards and wound up on the doorstep, where Pominville poked it into a vacant net as Hedberg was near the end boards waiting for the puck.

With Miller out of the game, Slater took advantage of a cold Thibault, knotting the contest just 2:25 into the third with his second goal of the season - and second in as many games.

Kalinin restored the lead for the Sabres less than three minutes later, snapping a 31-game drought by beating Hedberg with a wrister from the high slot for a power-play goal.

Hedberg made 29 saves for the Thrashers, who were without All-Star Ilya Kovalchuk due to a knee injury.

"It's a big loss," Perrin said of Kovalchuk's absence. "It's big shoes to fill. Kovy is the heart and soul of this team. We all knew without him that we had to take our game to another level. We all have to chip in."