NHL : Sabres win with furious comeback

Drew Stafford broke a third-period tie, Thomas Vanek had two goals and an assist and the Buffalo Sabres erased a three-goal third-period deficit to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Friday night in Buffalo, N.Y.

Daniel Briere and Jason Pominville also scored twice for the Sabres, who have won four of their past five following a four-game losing streak.

Boyd Devereaux had two goals, Matt Stajan had a goal and an assist and Bryan McCabe also scored for the Maple Leafs, who lost for the third time in four games.

Kings 2, Blackhawks 1: At Chicago, Mike Weaver’s power-play goal with 3:29 left in the third period snapped a tie and Los Angeles defeated Chicago.

Weaver, left open at the inside edge of the right circle, beat Chicago goalie Nikolai Khabibulin high on the glove side after taking a pass from Alexander Frolov.

Kings goalie Mathieu Garon made 26 saves.

Oilers 4, Avalanche 3 (SO): At Edmonton, Alberta, Marty Reasoner had the lone goal in a shootout and Edmonton snapped a 12-game winless streak by knocking off Colorado.

Marek Svatos, Brad Richardson and Joe Sakic scored in regulation for Colorado, while Ales Hemsky, Petr Sykora and Joffrey Lupul had goals for Edmonton.

It was also the first win for the Oilers since they sent forward Ryan Smyth to the New York Islanders at the trade deadline.

Ducks 3, Stars 2 (OT): At Anaheim, Calif., Scott Niedermayer scored with 2:32 remaining in overtime to lift Anaheim to a victory over Dallas and clinch a playoff spot for the Ducks.

With the win, the Ducks also set a franchise record for wins (44) and points (100).

Chris Kunitz had two power-play goals for Anaheim, with Niedermayer assisting on the second.