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Late heroics help Sabres keep Sharks slumping

Feb 14, 2009 - 5:11 AM BUFFALO, New York (Ticker) -- Derek Roy ultimately made the Buffalo Sabres' roller-coaster ride a successful one.

Roy scored the decisive goal in the fifth round of the shootout after Jason Pominville tied the contest in the waning seconds of regulation as the Sabres rallied for a 6-5 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Friday.

Buffalo, which squandered a pair of three-goal leads, trailed, 5-4, when Pominville knotted it with 3.9 seconds remaining, tipping in a shot from the point by captain Craig Rivet.

"The sweetest feeling is getting the two points," said Rivet, who notched a career-high three assists. "Right now, the (playoff) race is so tight that personal things are not important for the team to move forward. We had a huge win."

Following a scoreless overtime, neither side was able to gain the edge over the first three rounds of the shootout. After Pominville and Sharks captain Patrick Marleau each tallied in the fourth, Roy skated in and made a move to the backhand, lifting the puck over the outstretched glove of goaltender Evgeni Nabokov to give Buffalo the lead.

Ryan Miller followed with a glove save on Milan Michalek's backhand attempt, clinching the win for the Sabres.

"It was big for us," Miller said. "It's not going to be a fairy tale every night, where you get a lead and hold it. There will be nights like this, where you have to battle and scrape and come up with some heroics."

The win also capped an emotional 24-hour period in the community.

Prior to the game, the crowd at HSBC Arena observed a moment of silence for the victims of Thursday's plane crash in Clarence, New York - 10 miles short of its destination of Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

Many of the players live in the vicinity of the disaster, and the Sabres briefly considered postponing the contest.

"Obviously, it's been a real tough day for all of Buffalo," Rivet said. "Tonight, I'm proud of our guys. We played the best team in the league and we battled them right to the end. We got a big victory, not only for our club but for all of Buffalo and the people that are going to be going through some very tough times in the next little while.

"If we could somehow ease some of the pain, I hope it'll help."

Marleau scored twice and All-Star Joe Thornton dished out four assists for the Sharks, who fell to 1-1-4 in their last six games and 1-0-3 on their five-game road trip.

"We've lost a number of shootouts," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "It's a concern. We work on it, but probably not to the extent that we need to. It might be something we need to address as the season goes on."

Buffalo dominated the opening stages of the first period and was rewarded early as it scored the first three goals of the contest.

Adam Mair got the Sabres on the board at 6:40, deflecting Rivet's slap shot from the right point past Nabokov and just inside the right goalpost.

With Sharks defenseman Rob Blake in the penalty box for holding, the Sabres doubled their advantage when blue-liner Jaroslav Spacek unleashed a one-timer from the top of the slot that sneaked between the pads of Nabokov at 8:53.

Roy upped the advantage to 3-0 during a power play with 5:39 left in the period. Drew Stafford collected a loose puck at center ice before gaining the offensive zone and leaving it for Roy, who beat Nabokov high to the blocker side with a wrist shot from the right faceoff circle.

"Our power play did a good job," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "We created some traffic and did some good things.

Marleau scored with the man advantage 1:43 left in the opening session to draw the Sharks within two, but the Sabres regained their three-goal bulge when Ales Kotalik tallied while on the power play at 8:27 of the second.

However, the Sharks started to find their rhythm as Marleau cut the deficit to 4-2 at 9:39 and All-Star defenseman Dan Boyle made it a one-goal game with 52 seconds left in the middle period.

"We showed two colors," Boyle said. "The first period, we were an awful hockey team. In the second and most of the third, we showed that when we play the way we can, we're a hard team to play against."

Devin Setoguchi knotted the contest at 6:09 of the third, and Joe Pavelski gave San Jose its first lead of the game with a wrister from the right circle that beat Miller high to the glove side midway through the session.

"We'll probably leave here remembering the comeback, but that's not the part of the game we should be focusing on," McLellan said. "We haven't scored first in a lot of games here now, and it's a concern."

Each team registered 35 shots on goal.