• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Pominville helps Sabres to comeback victory

Jan 16, 2009 - 6:17 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Appearing to be a beaten team early in the second period after having played the night before, the Buffalo Sabres put up quite a fight.

Jason Pominville set up two goals in the third period, including Clarke MacArthur's tying tally, and scored the decisive one in the sixth round of the shootout as the Sabres rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

Paul Gaustad tallied twice and Jochen Hecht also scored for Buffalo, which rebounded from a 4-1 loss in Chicago on Wednesday to conclude its three-game road trip with a 1-2-0 record.

"This is a tough team to play against," Gaustad said of the Stars. "They pushed early, and we came and pushed back. We were disappointed with the effort last night. This was a big win. We hope it carries over into the All-Star break."

Drew Stafford notched a pair of assists and Ryan Miller made 21 saves for the Sabres, who scored just one goal in each of their previous three games - two of which were losses. On Friday, Buffalo entered a shootout with the New York Rangers in a 1-1 tie before emerging victorious.

"It was a gutsy win," Miller said. "The guys did a great job in the second and third periods. You could see that hunger. The boys showed up. It was good to see."

Steve Ott recorded a goal and an assist while Brad Richards and defensemen Matt Niskanen and Trevor Daley also scored for Dallas, which had won seven of its previous nine home meetings with Buffalo.

"We did some good things early and we were in full control, but we let it slip away," Niskanen said. "We changed our game, turned pucks over and handed them the momentum."

For the Stars, it was another frustrating loss in a roller-coaster ride of a season. One game after an inspiring comeback overtime victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings, Dallas squandered a 3-0 lead and allowed Buffalo to rally for three goals in the third period and forge a tie.

"We let momentum get away from us," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "We took bad penalties, we turned the puck over, and they took that momentum and ran with it. We have to keep building, and tonight was a hard lesson, a hard point to let slip away."

"The 1-on-1 battles, we lost, and the consistency of our game did a complete 180," Ott added. "It's an embarrassment and a joke. We came to the first period and dominated. We knew the task at hand, and it slipped."

Trailing, 3-1, the Sabres drew within one when Hecht scored at 3:01 of the third. But Richard restored the two-goal bulge 48 seconds later with his 11th tally of the season.

However, Gaustad and MacArthur netted goals 16 seconds apart midway through the session to knot the contest at 4-4 and stun the American Airlines center crowd.

"You have to give everybody credit for sticking with it," Pominville said. "We played a lot better in the third. We managed to get the puck in deep and make some plays. Guys made things happen. This bounce-back (win) is huge for our team."

After getting Buffalo on the board with a power-play goal in the second period, Gaustad received a cross-crease pass from the left side by Stafford and tapped the puck into a vacant net at 9:53 to complete his second two-goal performance of the season and fourth career.

Following the ensuing faceoff, MacArthur deflected defenseman Jaroslav Spacek's slap shot from above the left faceoff circle past netminder Marty Turco to even the contest.

"We got comfortable and weren't doing the things we were doing that gave us the lead," Daley said. "It's disappointing."

After a scoreless overtime, neither team was able to break through in the first four rounds of the shootout. Jere Lehtinen and Derek Roy traded goals in the fifth round, but after Miller denied Mark Parrish's backhander, Pominville beat Turco high to the glove side with a hard wrist shot to clinch the win.

"He made great saves on the other guys," Pominville said. "I just saw an opening and decided to shoot it."

"To fall behind and come back, and then to fall behind in the shootout and come back again, it was a big win for us," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said.

Niskanen and Ott scored power-play goals less than four minutes apart in the first period and Daley netted his second tally in as many games at 2:47 of the second to stake Dallas to a 3-0 lead. Ott's goal was his second with the man advantage in as many games and second in 299 career contests.

But Gaustad tipped captain Craig Rivet's wrister from the right point past Turco with 5:48 left in the period to cut the deficit to two.

"Some undisciplined penalties gave them life," Ruff said. "We dug ourselves a hole. But from the middle of the second period on, we dominated the game."

The assist was Rivet's 200th career point.