Hasek, Sabres Blank Devils

Dominik Hasek is playing so well that even when a shot goes into the net, it doesn't count.

Hasek posted his second consecutive shutout and league-high eighth of the season, leading the Buffalo Sabres to a 1-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.

An apparent game-tying goal by defenseman Brian Rafalski on a 30-foot screen shot at the final buzzer was disallowed after a television review showed the puck crossed the goal line tenths of a second after the horn.

"When he was shooting I wasn't sure," said Hasek, who had 24 saves. "I could hear the horn and the puck was still in front of me. I was 99 percent sure it was after time expired."

Hasek was so sure, he nodded to coach Lindy Ruff.

"Dom's not wrong very often," Ruff said after the Sabres won their fourth straight game.

Former Devil Dave Andreychuk scored the only goal on a second-period deflection as the Sabres completed a four-game sweep of the Stanley Cup champions this season.

In posting his second shutout of the season against the Devils and the 53rd of his career, Hasek extended his current shutout streak to 169 minutes, 35 seconds. The last goal he gave up was scored by rookie Pierre Dagenais in the Sabres' 5-1 win over New Jersey on Saturday.

Dagenais probably had the Devils' three best chances. He was stopped on rebounds in close in each of the first twperiods and on a setup in front by Bobby Holik with about three minutes to play.

Hasek has given up only two goals on 108 shots in his last four games.

"We've played well defensively the last two weeks," Andreychuk said. "Obviously Dominik played great, but we've played good team defense. The forwards come back and there are not a lot of outnumbered situations."

Steve Kelly also had a chance from close range in the first period, but New Jersey had little else on offense with four of its top seven scorers sidelined with injuries.

Andreychuk's 14th goal of the season came at 10:19 on the second period, shortly after a faceoff in the Devils' end. Andreychuk and Curtis Brown pushed the puck behind the goal line to Vaclav Varada, who skated to the left corner and back-handed a pass in front. Facing toward the corner and away from Brodeur, Andreychuk deflected the puck home, giving the Sabres their seventh win in nine games.

"It's a good play to throw it in front," Andreychuk said. "Marty doesn't know when it's going to get to him. It went in the right spot. It was just one of those goals."

New Jersey has one win (1-3-3) in the last seven games.

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