Hull Thwarts Sabres Again

It was eerily familiar, right down to Brett Hull sitting in the same locker describing how he scored a big goal against the Buffalo Sabres.

The only difference was this wasn't triple overtime, and the Stanley Cup wasn't on the line.

In his first visit back to Buffalo since scoring the disputed Cup-clinching goal some 17 months earlier, Hull scored with 4:58 left in regulation to secure the Dallas Stars a 2-2 tie with the Sabres on Wednesday night.

"Yeah, (the goal's) not quite as big but, good for us right now because we've been having a little trouble lately," Hull said. "It was a great game."

After Sabres goalie Dominik Hasek stopped Jere Lehtinen's shot from the right circle, the rebound went directly to Hull who, standing to the left of the net, flipped it in off Hasek's pad.

"I just felt where the puck was, that the best spot for me was off that post and it came right to me," Hull said.

Lehtinen took the initial shot, which was stopped by Hasek. Hull pounced on the rebound and eventually scored. While replays clearly showed that Hull's left skate was in the crease against the rules at the time NHL officials allowed the goal to stand, ruling that he never lost possession of the puck.

The Sabres, who beat the Stars 3-1 last season in Dallas, could only shake their heads.

"It was deja-vu, I guess," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said.

Hasek was still kicking himself for losing his goal stick leading to Hull's goal.

"I made a misake," Hasek said. "After I lost my stick, I couldn't make the save I wanted to make. I gave the puck exactly on Brett Hull's stick, and he was wide open."

Hasek appeared to have the battle won as he foiled Hull on three golden scoring opportunities earlier in the game.

"I don't know if I've played in a better game this year," said Hull, who extended his points streak to five games. "Lots of emotion in the crowd. I think you've got two teams with 20 guys still left from 20 years ago trying to prove something."

The game, intense at times, was played before a relatively subdued crowd of 17,106, about 1,500 short of a sellout. The Stars were jeered when they first took the ice, and someone taped a large sign, reading, "STILL NO GOAL," at one end of the arena.

Other signs around the arena blamed NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for allowing the disputed goal to stand.

Curtis Brown also scored for the Sabres, who have yet to lose at home this season (7-0-2), their best home start in 11 years.

Mike Keane scored for the Stars, playing on consecutive nights following Tuesday's 3-2 loss at Columbus.

The Sabres best chance came in the final 10 seconds of overtime when goalie Ed Belfour blocked Alexei Zhitnik's back-hander from in close and then smothered Miroslav Satan's attempt on the rebound.

Hull reminded everyone that it wasn't his fault that he became the center of controversy in Buffalo in 1999.

"I think everyone's got to remember that all I did was score the goal," he said. "I don't make the rules. It really wasn't up to me if the goal counted. I just happened to be lucky enough to score that goal."

Luck - or controversy - had nothing to do with Wednesday's goal.

"The puck just seems to be following him around the front of the net," linemate Mike Modano said. "If that happens to a player like that, more than often he's going to score."

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