Buffalo's Jason Pominville scored twice and the Sabres whipped Carolina 5-1 Thursday, ending the Hurricanes' nine-game win streak. Matt Ellis, Jochen Hecht and Derek Roy also scored for Buffalo, which is out of the NHL playoff picture. Sabres goalie Ryan Miller blocked 26 shots. Eric Staal scored for

Jason Pominville scored on a breakaway at 1:51 of overtime Friday to help the Buffalo Sabres record a 5-4 win at Washington. The victory helped the Sabres barely stay alive in the Eastern Conference playoff chase with 77 points and five games left in the regular season, while Washington captured its second straight Southeast Division title with one point, 102 in all. Pominville's goal was his 17th this season. Drew Stafford, Derek Roy (power play), Clarke MacArthur and Maxim Afinogenov also scored, while Ryan Miller survived after giving up four goals on 37 shots for the Sabres, who earned two points, but are trying to avoid missing the playoffs for a second straight season. Washington got two goals from Sergei Fedorov, one on the power play.

Tim Connolly scored the game-winner in a four-goal third period Wednesday in the Buffalo Sabres' 5-3 comeback win over the Florida Panthers. Florida led 3-1 before Jason Pominville started Buffalo's comeback with his 16th goal this season at 6:14 of the third. Clarke MacArthur's 14th at 7:05 created a 3-3 tie. Connolly's 14th (power play) gave Buffalo a 4-3 lead at 8:21 before Maxim Afinogenov 5 (empty net, unassisted) capped the scoring. Pominville also had two assists.

Brendan Bell scored two of three Ottawa power-play goals Tuesday to key the Senators' 4-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres. Daniel Alfredsson had a goal and an assist, and Dany Heatley also scored for Ottawa, which has won six of its last seven games.

Tim Connolly scored in each of the first two periods Friday night and the Buffalo Sabres produced three power-play goals to run away from Phoenix 5-1. The Sabres have won consecutive games for the first time in a month. Buffalo took a 3-0 lead into the third period, but the Coyotes tried to start a comeback when Matthew Lombardi scored on the power-play 6:52 into the stanza.