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Sabres' win streak reaches four

Dec 15, 2009 - 4:47 AM MONTREAL(AP) -- The Buffalo Sabres kept up their winning ways by holding off the Montreal Canadiens with a timely penalty kill over the final two minutes - and then some.

Clarke MacArthur scored a power-play goal 14:41 into the third period, and Buffalo extended its winning streak to four with a 4-3 victory over Montreal on Monday night.

MacArthur tucked a rebound inside the right post, giving the Sabres their third lead of the game after the Canadiens evened it twice in the third.

Patrick Kaleta, who scored twice in Saturday's 3-2 road win over the New York Rangers, had his second short-handed goal in two games late in the second to put Buffalo up 2-1. Tim Kennedy's third goal 12:33 into the third gave the Sabres a short-lived 3-2 lead.

"It was great to stick with it and get the job done," MacArthur said.

Ryan Miller stopped 21 shots and Andrej Sekera also scored for Buffalo, which is on an 8-2 run.

"That was one of those nights," Miller said. "I didn't get a ton of work but they found a way to get a few by me. I thought we worked really hard in the second period there to get back into it and get the lead, and the third period was just - it was just weird."

Strangest of all was the final 19 seconds of the game.

At the 19-second mark, Montreal used its timeout with Buffalo killing a penalty for the final 2 minutes after Tony Lydman was sent off for high sticking. The scoreboard clock did not begin to run for well over 10 seconds when play resumed.

When a stoppage in play occurred with just over 7 seconds showing on the clock, the referees signaled that time had expired.

"That would have been a heck of an ordeal to sort that out if a goal went in," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "Needless to say, we ended up winning the game and that ended up being irrelevant."

Andrei Kostitsyn got his third point of the game 12:51 into the third when he set up Mike Cammalleri's team-leading 18th goal to draw Montreal even at 3 just 18 seconds after Kennedy scored.

"The one thing you really hate as a team is to give up a goal right after you score, and we did that," Ruff said. "But I thought we stayed grounded after that and went back to work."

Canadiens backup Jaroslav Halak made 23 saves in his third start in seven games.

Montreal is on an 0-2-1 skid following a three-game winning streak.

"We had just scored the tying goal. We had some momentum going," Canadiens coach Jacques Martin said. "I think it's unfortunate because I thought we played a strong game against one of the better teams in the league. We outchanced them, not by much, but I thought our play was much better 5-on-5 and our special teams still did an excellent job."

Kaleta gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead with 59 seconds left in the second. Sekera drew Buffalo even at 12:58 with his second goal of the season 3 seconds after Montreal's Josh Gorges stepped out of the penalty box.

Kaleta took Tim Connolly's set-up pass on a 2-on-1 and moved to his backhand to put a shot past Halak for his third goal in two games.

"He worked hard to get up ice," Ruff said. "It wasn't an easy goal and it turned into a really pretty goal."

Kostitsyn tied it at 2 early in the third with his second power-play goal of the game, his fourth goal in two games.

Kostitsyn got his seventh goal 16:03 into the first, 17 seconds into Montreal's first power-play after Sabres captain Craig Rivet was penalized for roughing up Maxim Lapierre in the goalmouth.

Kostitsyn needed only 10 seconds to convert the Canadiens' third opportunity with the man advantage after Buffalo was penalized for too many men 2:26 into the third.

NOTES: Kaleta scored his first two goals of the season in consecutive games from Oct. 13-16 and had three overall through his first 26 games. He know has six goals in 28 games. ... Sabres LW Adam Mair and Montreal's Ryan O'Byrne dropped their gloves at center ice as the puck dropped to open the second. The pair were given fighting majors 3 seconds into the period.