"The Buffalo Sabres were in pure survival mode late in overtime Saturday night.

Just to get to the shootout and give Ryan Miller the chance to earn the 4-3 win over the New York Islanders that set the franchise record for victories by a goaltender, the Sabres had to kill off a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty.

In overtime, remember, it's 4-on-3 power plays and there was plenty of room for the Islanders to work the puck. They got five shots on goal, but the Sabres' trio of Paul Gaustad, Robyn Regehr and Jordan Leopold did yeoman's work.

Buffalo was credited with two blocks, but the trio got pieces of at least five pucks even though they only cleared it out of the zone for about 10 seconds.

"It was a good kill, real good," Leopold said. "Robyn and Paul had a couple good blocks, I got my stick on a couple pucks. Turns out it makes a big difference in the game, the difference between winning and losing at that point."

Gaustad took a couple of looks at the scoreboard clock, even once while the puck was in the zone, as the Sabres did everything they could to hold on and get to the shootout.

"I was looking at the clock and we just couldn't get out of the zone," Gaustad said. "It's one of those things where Leo and Robyn did a great job and everybody stayed in their lanes and tried to get [Miller] the best chance to save the puck.""