Brown Lifts Sabres To OT Win

Buffalo's Curtis Brown proved that sometimes shooting the puck in the general direction of the net can pay off.

Brown scored on a rebound of his own shot off the back boards at 1:14 of overtime to lift the Sabres to a 5-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks Thursday

After Brown's initial shot from right wing was deflected wide by Chicago defenseman Bryan Muir, the puck took an awkward bounce back to the edge of the crease. Before Chicago goaltender Steve Passmore could cover up, Brown knocked the puck high into the net.

"If you just shoot the puck at the net, something good might happen," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "He just shot the puck, didn't try to beat (Muir) one-on-one and kept going to the net."

Miroslav Satan added two goals, while Stu Barnes and Michael Peca each scored as the Sabres won their second road game of the season in as many nights. Buffalo had been 0-5-1 in its first six contests away from the Marine Midland Arena.

Overall, the Sabres have won four of their last five games.

Chicago's Tony Amonte scored a power-play goal with 18.6 seconds left in the third period to force overtime.

"From what I saw, we looked a lot better," Amonte said. "We had a lot of chances, a lot of shots. It still stings to lose, ut it's big getting one point."

The Blackhawks, who also got goals from Eric Daze, Blair Athceynum and Dean McAmmond, remained winless (0-4-3) at home.

"There's no excuse," Passmore said of Brown's game-winner. "It was a bad goal. We're ticked off we lost the game on a cheesy goal like that."

The Blackhawks jumped ahead 1-0 at 2:52 of the first period on Daze's power-play goal. However, the Sabres scored three times on their first five shots to chase starting Chicago goaltender Jocelyn Thibault.

Satan tied it 1-1 at 6:15 and made it 2-1 with 3:25 left in the period after taking a cross-ice feed from Brown. Barnes made it 3-1 one minute later with a tip-in from edge of the crease.

Passmore replaced Thibault and Chicago came back to tie it at 3-3 on goals by Atcheynum and McAmmond. Peca made it 4-3 at 4:48 of the third period when he skated past Chicago defenseman Anders Eriksson and slid a shot under Passmore.

©1999 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed