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Roy's goal lifts Sabres past Lightning

Dec 7, 2008 - 5:32 AM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- Derek Roy snapped a tie midway through the third period and Drew Stafford added a goal and two assists as the Buffalo Sabres skated to a 4-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.

Roy netted the game-winner with 9:57 left. After defenseman Teppo Numminen hit him with a pass in the right faceoff circle, Roy spun around and wristed a shot from the hash marks that beat goaltender Mike Smith.

"We worked hard. Obviously, we had a couple of good fights out of our guys and we finished our checks tonight," Roy said. "We threw pucks at the net and did a great job offensively. Overall, it was a good game."

Tampa Bay answered each of Buffalo's first three goals as the teams traded tallies once in the first period and twice in the second.

The chippy contest was marked by 20 penalties, although neither team was able to take advantage of its six power-play opportunities.

"We took too many penalties again," Tampa Bay's Vaclav Prospal said. "Last game, we took two or three, and tonight, we took three times as much. They have some good offensive guys. That's not a bad team either. We cannot keep giving momentum back to them."

Ryan Miller posted his 11th win of the season with 20 saves for the Sabres, who snapped a three-game slide and picked up the full two points for just the fourth time in their last 14 games.

"We might have gotten lucky tonight," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "We needed to ask Ryan to make a couple of big saves (when) they got inside on us. But for the most part, it's been trying to keep the shots to the outside and let Ryan see them."

"We just wanted to come out and play hard," said Buffalo's Adam Mair, who notched an assist. "I think we really got a good effort tonight. We stuck with it. Whenever you have 20 guys going in one direction, it's great. We got a lot of emotion in that game, and it's good to come away with the win."

Stafford opened the scoring at 10:02 of the first period, when he collected a rebound and snapped it past Smith. Tampa Bay answered three minutes later as Martin St. Louis accepted a feed from captain Vincent Lecavalier and stuffed the puck past Miller from the doorstep.

Thomas Vanek snapped the tie with his 19th goal of the campaign at 9:46 of the second, only to see the Lightning tie it 34 seconds later on defenseman Paul Ranger's second tally. Vanek is tied for the league lead in goals with Philadelphia's Jeff Carter, who also netted his 19th in the Flyers' 2-1 overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.

Jochen Hecht and Prospal tallied 39 seconds apart late in the period to make it a 3-3 game.

Smith made 23 saves for the Lightning, who dropped to 1-8-4 in their last 13 games.

"You're down and you're losing, and obviously it has a snowball effect," Tampa Bay interim coach Rick Tocchet said. "I think in your life, you always have down periods, and I judge people by the way they react after down periods or mistakes, and that's what we're looking for right now.

"We're looking for people to stand up here and get back on the front lines. Nobody's gonna help us but ourselves. It's a down situation, everybody's upset. People are probably hurt right now. I know it's a broken record, but we still have to show up tomorrow and still go to work."

St. Louis struggled to find the right words to explain his frustrations.

"It's Groundhog Day," St. Louis said. "We've got to play with more desperation at a key time. Pucks gotta get out, pucks gotta get in. Whatever it is, it's that one play that kills you.

"It seems right now that the way it's going, it's straining physically, it's straining mentally. Sometimes it's easy to just flip the switch and you're whatever, not whatever, but you flip the switch. Now, it's getting harder and harder to flip the switch - almost like a lingering feeling. It's straining."