Sabres Reduce Hurricanes To Drizzle

Ryan Miller made 20 saves and Ales Kotalik scored twice as the Buffalo Sabres demolished the Carolina Hurricanes, 8-1, at HSBC Arena. Jaroslav Spacek had a goal and two assists, while Tim Connolly, Maxim Afinogenov and Derek Roy each had a goal and a helper for Buffalo, which has won six of its last seven games. Adam Mair and Thomas Vanek also tallied. "Tonight all the rebounds went on our stick, every shot went in," said Spacek. "Sometimes you have to lose the game to win another five or six in a row. I think we learned from the mistakes we had against St. Louis (on Wednesday). I think we played a great game today." Ray Whitney had the lone goal and John Grahame stopped just 17-of-25 shots for Carolina, which has dropped three of four and has not won in Buffalo since the 2006 Eastern Conference finals. "They came out with the jump, its their home ice, they hadnt played, they were ready for that," said Grahame. "Obviously we werent ready for that, we expected it. You all saw what happened out there. "They just kept coming at us and at us. Any time you let eight goals in, youre not doing something right." Buffalo opened the scoring just 1:32 into the contest, as Kotalik registered his sixth goal of the season. The crafty winger corralled the puck along the far side of the left circle, spun and threw a harmless-looking shot towards the net that beat Grahame through the five-hole. Connolly made it 2-0 with a power-play tally, as he ripped a long slapshot from between the circles that sailed under the glove of Grahame and into the low left corner at 4:18. The Sabres then made it a 3-0 game directly off the faceoff, as Paul Gaustad won the draw and sent a forward pass to Mair, who tipped it home with 4:28 remaining in the middle stanza. Afinogenovs tally just 56 seconds later inflated the cushion to 4-0, while Drew Stafford failed to score on a penalty shot a half-minute later. Roy lit the lamp on a breakaway goal, wristing the puck past Grahame on the glove side early in the third period, while Vaneks shot deflected off the underside of the crossbar and ricocheted back onto the ice. Kotaliks second goal came on the man-advantage at 10:34, while Spacek capped the Sabres scoring with a goal at 12:03. Whitney broke up Millers shutout bid when he got Carolina on the board with just 1:55 remaining in the contest. Game Notes Spacek tied his career-high with three points in a game...Afinogenovs goal was his first in 13 games...This was Mairs first game back since missing 10 with an ankle injury...The Sabres improved to 8-5-0 at home..Carolina defeated the Sabres earlier in the season, but has lost six of the last seven and seven of the last 11 meetings.