BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Mike Sillinger beat Dominik Hasek with 82 seconds to play in overtime as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Buffalo Sabres 7-6 in a wild game that featured a six-goal third period Wednesday night.
With just under 1:30 left in the extra period, Esa Tikkanen broke into the left faceoff circle but lost the puck off his stick. It trickled just outside the circle where Sillinger was able to spin and get a shot off. The puck bounced past a Buffalo defender and through Hasek's pads for the game-winner.
"Just a funny game, lots of goals back and forth, an exciting game for the fans to watch, a coach's nightmare," Sillinger said. "We are ready to go home. We had six games in nine nights and 2-3-1 sounds a lot better than 1-4-1. When you have a lot of injuries, guys step to the forefront. That's what has to happen to win games in this league."
In addition to the see-saw third period, Buffalo's Michal Grosek recorded his first career hat trick. He entered with just four goals in 25 games this season, but scored twice in the third, including the tying tally with 2:43 left.
The Sabres had their three-game winning streak snapped and surrendered seven goals after allowing only 11 in their previous six contests. They failed to outshoot an opponent for the 26th time in as many games this season.
"Dom's only human," Sabres center Mike Peca said. "We got some goals, tried to support him as much as poissible. They got some lucky bounces. I thought when we put it to 6-5 we had them going. It's just a matter of us getting the tying goal. We came back in overtime and outchanced them, but they came back and got the goal. You can look at it two ways -- we didn't deserve it from the start or we battled back and deserved to win, but we didn't."
Making Vancouver's offensive outburst even more surprising was that the Canucks did it without offensive stars Trevor Linden, Alexander Mogilny and Russ Courtnall, who were out with injuries. The Canucks had 38 shots after cominbing for only 34 in their previous two games.
Vancouver broke on top early with two goals in the opening 5:12 and led 3-1 just over two minutes into the second period. But Buffalo rallied behind tallies by Rob Ray and Donald Audette. Ray's goal, his third in 26 games this season, matched his total in 71 games last season.
But tough guys Donald Brashear and Troy Crowder scored in the opening six minutes of the third period for a 5-3 lead. Brashear has three goals in 10 games with Vancouver after going scoreless in 10 contests before he was traded by Montreal.
"The coach wants me to go out there and play tough, give checks," Brashear said. "It's the best (situation) for me, show that I can play and put a few in every once in a while."
The teams swapped goals just over a minute apart in the middle of the period before Buffalo rallied over the final four minutes on goals by Peca and Grosek.
Sabres defenseman Garry Galley left early in the first period after suffering a concussion following a collision with Pavel Bure.
Jon's 3 stars:
1. Michal Grosek
2. Mike Sillinger
3. Esa Tikkanen
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