Sabres demolish Hurricanes 4-1

Buffalo Sabres goalie Ryan Miller watches the puck come off the stick of Carolina Hurricanes right winger Scott Walker, No. 24, during the third period of their NHL hockey game in Buffalo, New York, on Thursday. Buffalo defeated Carolina 4-1. PHOTO: AP

Ryan Miller made 29 saves and Ales Kotalik scored on a penalty shot to help the Buffalo Sabres defeat visiting Carolina 4-1 on Thursday night.

Jason Pominville, Chris Drury and Thomas Vanek also scored for the Sabres. Buffalo swept the four-game season series against the Hurricanes.

Carolina beat the Sabres in the Eastern Conference finals last season en route to the Stanley Cup title.

Carolina's Craig Adams spoiled Miller's shutout bid with a short-handed goal late in the third.

Carolina entered the game with a season-best five-game win streak.

Kotalik beat John Grahame on the penalty shot with under a minute to go after Adams scored to make it 3-1 with 1:09 left.

Flyers 4, Lightning 3

At Tampa, Florida, Simon Gagne scored two goals, Peter Forsberg had three assists and Robert Esche made 42 saves, helping Philadelphia stop a franchise record 10-game losing streak.

Alexei Zhitnik and Sami Kapanen also scored for the Flyers, who won for the first time since beating the New York Islanders 3-2 on Nov. 30.

Martin St. Louis, Filip Kuba and Ruslan Fedotenko scored for the Lightning.

Red Wings 7, Blue Jackets 4

At Columbus, Ohio, Dan Cleary scored the winning goal with 5:19 left in the third period to cap Detroit's comeback victory.

Cleary found the net three times in the game to record his first career hat-trick.

Pavel Datsyuk had two goals and an assist for Detroit, winners of five of their last seven. Henrik Zetterberg and Danny Markov each had a goal and an assist.

Robert Lang assisted on all three of Cleary's goals and Brett Lebda had two assists.

David Vyborny had a goal and an assist for Columbu, and Ron Hainsey, Dan Fritsche and Adam Foote also scored.