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Connolly, Lalime help Sabres jolt Coyotes

Mar 7, 2009 - 4:09 AM BUFFALO, New York (Ticker) -- Tim Connolly scored a pair of goals and set up two others and Patrick Lalime made 29 saves as the Buffalo Sabres posted a 5-1 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Friday.

Defenseman Andrej Sekera recorded a goal and an assist and Jason Pominville and Drew Stafford netted power-play tallies for the Sabres, who have won two in a row after suffering a three-game losing streak.

"Special teams did a great job tonight," Connolly said. "Obviously penalty killing starts with your goaltender and (Lalime) did a great job, he kept us in there when they created some chances and we were able to get a few on the power play."

Filling in for the injured Ryan Miller, Lalime went 0-2-1 in three starts despite allowing only six goals prior to shining in a 5-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday, when he notched his first win since December 13.

Since breaking that 0-5-1 skid, the 34-year-old has turned aside 67 of 69 shots he has faced in the last two contests.

"I think we played well, we played with emotion," Lalime said. "Special teams were unbelievable again and it was a great effort again.

"It's a team game. It was a matter of time and I knew we could score goals. We're sure doing it in the right fashion. Guys are really playing well at both ends of the ice."

Newly acquired Matthew Lombardi scored a power-play goal for Phoenix, which had snapped a three-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory over the Eastern Conference-leading Boston Bruins on Thursday.

"I thought it was a good game," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "The first goal (Ilya) Bryzgalov would like to have back. We started really well and the first goal was kind of a weird goal.

"We had some chances, Lalime I thought was really good. Then we got back into it at 3-1, we just kind of came up short. I thought our guys really battled."

Connolly opened the scoring at 7:07 of the first period and Sekera collected his third tally of the season 78 seconds later, accepting a feed from Connolly and firing a hard slap shot from the high slot that sailed by Bryzgalov.

With 5:43 remaining in the second, Connolly converted a power-play goal for his 13th goal of the season and a 3-0 lead.

"It was an important game for us," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "We wanted to feed off the fact that we played a pretty strong 50 minutes last game after starting slow. (Tonight) I thought we got the start we wanted.

"I thought they battled hard, they skated well. We had to rely on (Lalime) for timely saves and our penalty killing held us in there when we ran a few together."

Lombardi, who was traded along with Brandon Prust and a draft pick from Calgary for Olli Jokinen prior to Wednesday's NHL trade deadline, cut the deficit at 6:52 of the third to spoil Lalime's shutout bid.

Buffalo ballooned its advantage when Pominville and Stafford scored power-play goals in a 37-second span late in the session.

"It's a 5-1 game," Phoenix captain Shane Doan said. "It's tough to find to find too many things out of it that were positive. They get two late ones on the power play, that's the way it goes I guess."

Bryzgalov finished with 26 saves for the Coyotes, who fell for the 13th time in 17 games since the All-Star break.