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Avery's late goal gives Rangers win over Sabres

Feb 24, 2008 - 4:54 AM BUFFALO, New York (Ticker) -- Sean Avery made his parents proud.

Avery snapped a tie with 5:05 remaining in the third period with his parents in attendance to lead the New York Rangers to a 4-3 victory Saturday over the Buffalo Sabres.

Captain Jaromir Jagr, Nigel Dawes and Brandon Dubinsky also scored for the Rangers, who improved to 4-0-2 in their last six games.

"We got better as the game went on," New York coach Tom Renney said. "I didn't think we were real sharp early, even though we had the lead. It took a little while to get our feet under us and get climatized to what we needed to do to take the game over, not that we did at any point. Buffalo played well, but we did enough to get the win, and that's all that matters."

Ales Kotalik netted a pair of goals and Jason Pominville also tallied for Buffalo, which fell to 0-3-0 against New York this season.

With just over five minutes left in the third, Kotalik gained possession of the puck along the left wing boards in his own zone. But the Czech backhanded it right to New York's Brendan Shanahan, who failed to get good wood on his shot from the high slot.

However, the puck went directly to Avery, who flipped it past goaltender Ryan Miller from the left side of the crease to give the Rangers a 4-3 advantage.

"I had a feeling that I could put away this game for us," a dejected Kotalik said. "Unfortunately, it went the other way. One misplay on my part, it costs us the game in the last five minutes, and that really hurt."

"The first part of the play is going down the ice and not shooting the puck, which led to the turnover in the offensive zone when we could have had a great scoring chance," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "Second part was, our goaltender could have froze the puck. The third part was Al's turnover, and he was having a great night."

Avery, who has boycotted the media recently, refused to discuss his winning goal. But Renney and linemate Dubinsky addressed the topic of the three-man unit.

"They're a good line," Renney said. "When they use what they have for strengths, individually and collectively, they are a good line. They are all strong in their own way and fearless with the puck. They are starting to develop instincts about where each other is. When they are working and on top, they are pretty tough to stop, and they were a big part of the win tonight."

"We obviously had a few goals out there, and that was nice, but we've got to make sure we keep it going and take care of our own zone as well," Dubinsky said. "We're all three trying to put a little pressure on ourselves to contribute offensively. We've had a little bit of trouble scoring goals as a team, so it's one of those things where we're pressing a little more and trying to make some plays, and right now, the pucks are going in."

The game was New York's first since squandering a five-goal lead and suffering a 6-5 shootout loss in Montreal on Tuesday.

"It was an up and down game," Jagr said. "It was a tough game for us after we blew a 5-0 lead in Montreal. We didn't know how the team was going to react. I don't think we played extremely well, but we played well enough to win it."

"Obviously, we wanted to come back here and get a win after what happened in Montreal," Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist said. "We can put that game behind us and getting the winning feel here."

Goalless in his previous 12 games, Jagr opened the scoring at 6:10 of the first period. Defenseman Fedor Tyutin unleashed a wrist shot from the left point that the five-time Art Ross Trophy winner redirected past Miller from the slot for his 16th of the season.

Kotalik knotted the contest at 8:48, when he snapped a shot from just inside the blue line past a screened Lundqvist. But Dawes restored New York's lead just 61 seconds later, firing a shot from the left faceoff circle over Miller's left shoulder while 1-on-1 with All-Star defenseman Brian Campbell for his ninth goal.

Buffalo again pulled even just over four minutes into the second.

Following a turnover by Rangers rookie defenseman Marc Staal, Tim Connolly was robbed from alone in the slot by Lundqvist. But the Sabres maintained possession and blue-liner Toni Lydman carried the puck below the right circle before dishing to Pominville, who buried a one-timer at 4:05 for his 17th tally.

Kotalik gave Buffalo its first lead of the night at 10:11, wiggling between two defenders in the left circle before beating Lundqvist and capping his second consecutive two-goal performance.

But the lead was short-lived, as defenseman Michal Rozsival completed a pass from the right circle to Dubinsky, who shoveled the puck past Miller 34 seconds later to forge a 3-3 tie.

"It was a little bit of a goal-mouth scramble," Dubinsky said. "The puck ended up bouncing out. I was kind of in a bad position, so I went around the net. I knew the defense was going to be coming in.

"Everyone seemed to be mesmerized at the puck. I just called for it. Rozsival made a tremendous pass. It was one of those gifts."