Marchant Pulls Oilers By Sabres

Todd Marchant gave the Edmonton Oilers the scoring punch they needed.

Marchant had two goals and an assist Friday night to lead the Oilers to a 6-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night.

The Oilers had scored just 21 goals in the previous 10 games and were just 4-of-52 on the power play.

"You've got to go to the front of the net, you've go to pay the price and tonight we did that," Marchant said. "They weren't pretty but they count."

Dean McAmmond, Janne Niinimaa, Chris Ferraro and Boris Mironov also scored for the Oilers. Doug Weight added two assists.

"All we tried to do was get a lot of shots from the point and fortunately it worked," Weight said.

The Oilers scored three times on the power play and outshot Buffalo 39-30.

Derek Plante had two goals and former Oiler Miroslav Satan also scored for Buffalo.

Marchant scored on a goal-mouth scramble in the first period and one-timed a shot from linemate McAmmond in the second for his seventh and eighth goals of the year.

The Oilers scored three times on the power play and outshot Buffalo 39-30. Buffalo was 0-for-3 with the man advantage.

Edmonton led 3-0 after the first period, chsing goaltender Dwayne Roloson. He was replaced by Martin Biron as the Sabres continue to play without the injured Dominik Hasek, who is out with a pulled groin.

"I think it was obvious how much it put us being the 8-ball," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said of the 3-0 deficit. "We had a lot of breakdowns and we had some players outfought in front of the net."

Edmonton goalie Bob Essensa recorded the win to improve to 11-10-5.

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