The Buffalo Sabres may have been the hottest team in the Northeast Division, but the Ottawa Senators showed who's the best.
Dany Heatley notched three points — including an empty-net goal — for Ottawa as the Eastern Conference leaders snapped the Sabres' six-game winning streak with a 5-3 win Wednesday night in Buffalo.
Ryan Miller, left, makes a save on Senators forward Dany Heatley as the Sabres' Derek Roy tries to break up the play during Wednesday's game in Buffalo.
(Don Heupel/Associated Press)
Wade Redden chipped in a goal and an assist, and Antoine Vermette, Mike Fisher and Daniel Alfredsson had a goal each for the Senators (24-8-4), who won for the eighth time in 10 tries to up their lead in the Northeast to 12 points over idle Boston and Montreal.
Jason Spezza registered two helpers to extend his points streak to eight games, while Martin Gerber made 29 saves.
"We've played each other so much over the last two years, it doesn't matter who's going good or how the past couple weeks have been going," said Heatley, who had his 16th multi-point game this NHL season. "Whether they are hot or not, we know it's going to be a tough game."
Jochen Hecht, Brian Campbell and Adam Mair scored for the Sabres (19-15-1), who got 19 saves from Ryan Miller as they lost for just the fifth time in their last 18 games.
"It wasn't our best game," Buffalo defenceman Toni Lydman said. "We have the kind of team that can beat them if we're playing our best."
The Senators appeared to all but sew up the game 26 seconds into the third period, when Alfredsson beat Miller with a slap shot off an odd-man rush to put his team up 4-1.
But Buffalo battled back to within one on Mair's goal with under eight minutes to play, and had a good chance to tie the game when Spezza was sent off for hooking at 17:11.
But, to the chagrin of the sellout crowd of 18,690, the Sabres couldn't capitalize on the opportunity, and Heatley added insult to injury by potting his empty-netter in the final second for his team-leading 23rd tally of the season.
Ottawa returns home to face the New York Islanders on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET), while Buffalo visits New Jersey on Friday.
The Sabres' next home contest is the Winter Classic outdoor game on New Year's Day (CBC, 1 p.m. ET).
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