Thrashers beat Sabres in OT

Buffalo, N.Y. — Johan Hedberg was playing for his job Friday night, and it wasn’t going well.

The Buffalo Sabres had scored four goals on him through two periods. He might have been headed for his third loss in as many starts. Teammate Niclas Havelid skated over to him after the fourth goal, tapped a stick on his pads and told him to keep going. And Hedberg did.

He stopped every shot the rest of the way and came up huge on a poke check of NHL goal-scoring leader Thomas Vanek to prevent a breakaway goal. That play helped force overtime, and Jason Williams made Hedberg a 5-4 winner with a power-play goal 48 seconds into overtime.

“I’ve been chasing this feeling for a long time now,” Hedberg said. “It’s been a hard time. Hopefully, this is something that I can build off and the team can build off, and we all can take strides and get better.”

Hedberg entered the game with the lowest save percentage and the highest goals-allowed average among the NHL’s 67 goalies. He was on the verge of getting squeezed in a numbers game between soon-to-return No. 1 goalie Kari Lehtonen and up-and-coming youngster Ondrej Pavelec. NHL teams don’t keep three goalies on the roster.

No one had to tell Hedberg that his eighth NHL season might have been heading for an abrupt end.

“I’m not blind. I’m not stupid. You have to realize the situation you’re in,” he said. “At the same time, you can’t think about it, either. I want to come out, and I want to play hockey the way I can. I haven’t done that for a long time. Tonight, I started getting that feeling back a little bit, and hopefully it’s going to be something that’s a trend.”

Did Hedberg do enough to keep his roster spot?

“Yes, absolutely,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “He made great saves at the end there, and the one on Vanek was fabulous.”

Lehtonen, who has been out with a cold and then a bad back, is expected to start Sunday at Carolina. Hedberg, 35, signed a two-year contract this summer that pays him $1 million this season. Pavelec, 21, was AHL goalie of the month in October and has won both of his starts with the Thrashers, though they came against two of the league’s weakest teams.

Williams’ second goal of the game and fifth of the season extended the Thrashers’ winning streak to three games. Pavelec was in net for the first two.

The Sabres’ Ryan Miller hadn’t just won back-to-back games, he had posted back-to-back shutouts. It had been 145 minutes since a puck got past him.

But it took just 4:12 for Williams to solve that riddle. Bryan Little scored twice, once while being pulled down from behind by Toni Lydman, once on a rebound off a shot from Slava Kozlov. And Todd White scored the game-tying goal by keeping his balance long enough to turn on a puck in the slot 8 minutes into the third period.

It could have been for naught. But as Vanek skated in on Hedberg, the goalie dived out from his crease and extended his stick, stopping the puck and stunning the crowd and Vanek.

“It’s a surprise move, and an aggressive move,” Hedberg said.

“He’s unbelievable with that,” Thrashers goalie coach Steve Weeks said. “You should see him in practice, even when the guys know it’s coming.”