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Perrin lifts Thrashers over Sabres in shootout

Fri 1st, February 2008

Atlanta, GA (Sports Network) - Eric Perrin scored the game-winner in the shootout as the Atlanta Thrashers came back to beat the Buffalo Sabres, 5-4, at Philips Arena.

In the fourth round of the shootout, Perrin skated in on net, sold the backhander to Jocelyn Thibault, came back to the forehand and deposited the puck into the net.

Thomas Vanek had the last chance for Buffalo, but he missed the net on his shot.

Bobby Holik and Tobias Enstrom each had a goal and an assist for the Thrashers, who have won two straight after a five-game losing streak. Johan Hedberg stopped 29 shots and all four shooters in the shootout.

Atlanta played without star forward Ilya Kovalchuk, who sat out the game with a right knee injury and will miss Saturday's game in Washington, but is expected to return to play early next week.

"When Buffalo went up I still felt we had good life on the bench," said Atlanta coach Don Waddell. "The guys still had good life in them and I knew we could come back if we kept plugging away."

Jochen Hecht, Jason Pominville, Daniel Paille and Dmitri Kalinin each had a goal for the Sabres, who had a three-game winning streak stopped.

Ryan Miller started in net for Buffalo and made 18 saves on 20 shots, but left after the second period with a lower body injury. He appeared to get hurt when Atlanta's Chris Thorburn fell on him late in the second. Thibault finished the game between the pipes and stopped seven shots.

"I'm angry at the loss," said Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff. "Those late penalties killed us. We took a couple of stupid penalties that cost us the game. We started reall poor, played really poor for the first 15 minutes of the game, after that we played well. But we got into penalty trouble and that hurt us."

Trailing, 3-2, the Thrashers tied the game just 2:25 into the final period as Eric Boulton flicked a backhand pass from the deep right boards out front and Jim Slater tapped it in.

However, the Sabres took a 4-3 lead with a power-play goal. Derek Roy got the puck to Kalinin, who flicked a wrister from the slot into the right corner of the net at the 5:11 mark.

Atlanta, though, benefited from a pair of late penalties against Buffalo to tie the game and force the extra session. With two Sabres in the box and Hedberg on the bench for the extra-attacker, Holik won a right circle faceoff and the puck came back to Enstrom, who blasted a slap shot into the net with 17.2 seconds left.

The Thrashers grabbed a 1-0 lead a bit less than six minutes in as Mark Recchi skated into the Buffalo end and let fly with a quick snapshot from the left circle that beat Miller into the right corner.

Atlanta took a 2-0 advantage with 11:41 left in the first. Slava Kozlov had the disc behind the net and sent it out front. The puck hit off the stick of a defenseman and bounced along the ice, but Holik whacked the puck into the net for his 10th goal of the season.

Buffalo got on the board 7:55 into the second period on the power play. A left circle faceoff win resulted in the puck coming back to Jaroslav Spacek, who dished the puck to the right point where Hecht blasted a one-timer into the net.

The Sabres tied the game just 1:21 later thanks to a fortunate bounce. Toni Lydman dumped the puck into the Atlanta end from the left side and the puck took a hop off the left boards. It came right out front where Pominville tapped it into the net before Hedberg, who was attempting to play the dump-in, was able to get back into position.

Skating 4-on-4, Buffalo grabbed a 3-2 lead with 4:03 left in the middle frame. On the rush, Roy flicked a pass from the right side to the left where Paille tapped it in for his 11th goal of the season.

Game Notes

Buffalo wraps up its five-game road trip in Boston on Tuesday... Atlanta plays in Washington on Saturday...This was the last meeting of the season between these two clubs, with each side winning two contests...Buffalo went 2-for-5 on the power play while Atlanta finished 1-for-6.

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