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Thursday, Apr. 6 7:30pm ET
Sabres in driver's seat for final berth | |||||
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BOX SCORE
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Even though the playoffs won't start until next week, the Buffalo Sabres have been in a playoff mode for the last three weeks out of sheer necessity. Dominik Hasek had 32 saves and the streaking Sabres moved a little closer to a playoff berth by beating the struggling New Jersey Devils 5-0 on Thursday night. Doug Gilmour had three assists and Curtis Brown scored twice as the Sabres won their third straight and seventh in eight games to remain tied with Montreal for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. "We've been in the playoff mode for three weeks just for survival," coach Lindy Ruff said. "It's still survival. We haven't accomplished anything yet. We put ourselves in a situation where we had to dig out out of a hole, and we are still digging." The Sabres and Canadiens each have 83 points, although Buffalo has two games left, one more than Montreal. The Canadiens beat Tampa Bay 5-1 on Thursday night. Carolina also has an outside shot at a playoff spot. The Hurricanes have 80 points with two games left in the regular season against expansion Atlanta, and will need help. "You win, everything is good," Brown said. "If you doze off for a second and come up on the wrong end of the stick, we know we're out of the playoffs." The loss was the second straight and fourth in six games for the Devils. They are not only in danger of losing the lead in both the Eastern Conference and the Atlantic Division, but there is a chance they could slip to fifth in the conference and lose home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs. Philadelphia's 3-1 victory over Atlanta on Thursday moved the Flyers into a first-place tie with New Jersey in the conference and division with 101 points. The Flyers have a game in hand. New Jersey finishes at home on Saturday against Florida, a game which could move the Panthers ahead if they win their final two games. "We're here fighting for first place and we just roll over," said Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur, who faced 24 shots. Stu Barnes and Jason Woolley staked Buffalo to a 2-0 lead with special teams goals. Barnes got his 19th with a short-handed goal 12 minutes into the first period. Alexei Zhitnik set it up by chipping the puck past Claude Lemieux, who was playing his 1,000th career game. That gave Barnes a 2-on-1 break and he beat Brodeur from the left circle. Gilmour then took over, setting up a power-play goal by Woolley at 32 seconds of the second period with a great pass. Brown was also the beneficiary of the next two passes by Gilmour, a former Devil. Brown got his 21st a little less than three minutes later with a backhand pass from along the boards and added his second at 10:47 after taking another pass from Gilmour from the corner. "He's given us the one playmaker we've needed," Ruff said. "He's not necessarily a big guy, but he's the one who can make that 5-foot pass through legs, over sticks. We didn't have a guy who could do that." Michael Peca closed out the scoring in close with 1:26 to go. The shutout was the second in five days for Hasek, who blanked Montreal 2-0 on Saturday. The Dominator, who is 14-6-4 since returning from a groin injury, has three this season and 45 in his career. Hasek's best saves were a second-period breakaway stop against Lemieux and another in close on Alexander Mogilny in the first period. "I thought the breakaway was his biggest accomplishment," Ruff said. "We hadn't gotten the big saves earlier in the year." Devils coach Larry Robinson said his team didn't make Hasek work much. "We flatly got outworked, outhustled, outhit, out-everything in every area,' he said. "I could have played goal tonight." | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Buffalo Clubhouse New Jersey Clubhouse Playoffs not here yet, and Devils already starting their swoon
RECAPS NY Islanders 2 Ottawa 1
Buffalo 5 AUDIO/VIDEO   Dominik Hasek was unbeatable, getting his second shutout in five days.avi: 805 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   | |||||