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Tuesday, Jan. 4 7:00pm ET
Atlanta 5, Buffalo 4 | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- The Buffalo Sabres were enjoying their lead over Atlanta a bit too much. The three-goal advantage vanished and rookie Jason Botterill scored with 1:09 to play as the Thrashers beat the Sabres 5-4 Tuesday night. Botterill scored his first NHL goal when he got behind Buffalo goalie Martin Biron and tapped the puck in. "It's a great feeling to score your first goal and have it be a meaningful goal," said Botterill, who gave Atlanta its third road victory of the season and goalie Scott Fankhouser his first NHL win. The Sabres were booed as they skated off with their fourth loss in five games. "It was unacceptable," said Jason Woolley of the Sabres, who took a 4-1 lead at 8:47 of the second period and didn't score again. "All of a sudden we think we're the Red Army team," Woolley said. "We start running around and dropping passes, and we get away from what we did to get the three-goal lead." Ray Ferraro and Ed Ward scored in the second period to draw the Thrashers within a goal, and Denny Lambert tied it on a partial breakaway 18 seconds into the third. Miroslav Satan scored two goals, and Stu Barnes and Brian Holzinger added goals for the Sabres, who found themselves embroiled in another shootout after splitting a home-and-home series with Toronto that produced 17 goals. The Sabres scored two power-play goals after entering the game with a league-worst 8.8 percent success rate. "Our power play was solid," Woolley said. "When we do get it going, there's no excuse for not keeping things going in other areas." The expansion Thrashers have won just two of their last 13 games, including two ties and two losses in overtime. They also lost six straight in that stretch. "We kept skating hard and you could tell they were getting tired," Fankhouser said. "The bounces started going our way." Buffalo scored three goals in the first period. Satan was standing near the post on Fankhouser's glove side when he one-timed Michal Grosek's pass from the corner for his 18th goal at 1:40. Satan scored a nearly identical goal on a power play at 11:47, snapping in a pass from the corner by Barnes. Darryl Shannon, a former Buffalo player, made it 2-1 with a slap shot over Biron's glove on a power play with 5:40 left in the first. "Yeah, it's nice to beat Buffalo," Shannon said. "But it's nice to beat anybody." Barnes made it 3-1 with the Sabres' second power-play goal with seven seconds left in the first, sweeping Woolley's pass from the left circle past Fankhouser. Buffalo seemed headed for a blowout when Holzinger scored at 8:42 of the second period. Ferraro scored his ninth, tapping in the rebound of a shot by Shannon, on a power play with 5:15 left in the second. Ward added the Thrashers' second short-handed goal of the season with 2:56 left in the period. Lambert then tied it, scoring off his own rebound. "I give them a game plan," Atlanta coach Curt Fraser said. "If they follow it, we're successful, if they get away from it, we falter. It's time for them to make up their minds to follow the plan." | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Atlanta Clubhouse Buffalo Clubhouse RECAPS Atlanta 5 Buffalo 4 AUDIO/VIDEO   Jason Botterill scores the game-winner for Atlanta.avi: 536 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |||||