The Buffalo Sabres have tied the Stanley Cup Final series at 2 with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the Dallas Stars tonight. They got help from a late addition of Randy Cunneyworth, up from his stint in the Calder Cup Finals with the Rochester Americans. His veteran leadership proved valuable and he even made a key save when Hasek was out of the net and wouldn't have stopped it.

The Sabres played two intense periods and then decided to go into their defensive shell to protect their 1 goal lead in the third period.

Before the game, Dominik Hasek had told the players to get more aggressive, that he'd take care of their end. He said that he would do his best to stop everything, that he would stand up for his team and just about guaranteed the win. Tonight, he allowed just one goal and almost got into a couple of scuffles.

In the second period, Dixon Ward stole a pass from Craig Ludwig and took a wrist shot on Belfour that went through him for Buffalo's second goal with 7:37 gone by. That turned out to be the game winner. After that goal, the Sabres suddenly regained the intensity they had lost for two games. They started to hit again and put more pressure on Belfour. Belfour made one save that seemed impossible. He was down on the left side of the net when a rebound went behind him and Satan swatted the puck in the direction of the goal line. Belfour took his stick and flipped it 180 degrees until it was on the ice blocking the puck from entering the net. What a save! That right now is the save of these Stanley Cup Finals.

The second period ended with a lot of fireworks as Joe Nieuwendyk knocked over Dominik Hasek near the end of the period and the refs refused to make a call. That got under the Dominator's skin as he took matters into his own hands at the end of the period and got a roughing call for his efforts.

The Buffalo Sabres came out and scored the first goal of the game when Geoff Sanderson made a nifty move and broke in alone on Ed Belfour. As he was closing in, Sanderson faked his shot and then deked Belfour out of the goal and shot into an open net. That was going against the grain by scoring first. Every team who has scored first in this series has lost the game. Two minutes later, Jere Lehtinen tied it up with a power play goal.

In the third period, the Sabres reverted back to their defensive shell. They didn't get a shot on goal until around the 8 minute mark. This certainly was not the way to protect a lead and Buffalo ended up getting outshot 13-2 in the final period. In the entire game, the Stars outshot the Sabres 31-18. But somehow, they were able to withstand the storm and Dominik Hasek had made good on his word.

Multimedia

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SEE SANDERSON BEATING BELFOUR ON THE BREAKAWAY
WARD'S INTERVIEW AFTER GAME 4 (AUDIO)
CUNNEYWORTH SAVES THE DAY
HASEK GOES AFTER HATCHER
EDDIE BELFOUR ROBS MIRO SATAN
DIXON WARD'S GAME-WINNER IN GAME 4
LISTEN TO THE POST-GAME PRESS CONFERENCE ON REAL AUDIO

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Buffalo 2, Dallas 1

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	1st	2nd	3rd	TOTAL
Dallas	1	0	0	1
Buffalo	1	1	0	2

First Period
Scoring: 1, Buffalo, Sanderson 4 (unassisted), 8:09. 2, Dallas, Lehtinen 9 (power play) (Modano, Hatcher), 10:14. Penalties: Matvichuk, Dal (roughing), 3:48; Primeau, Buf (charging), 9:32; Woolley, Buf (holding), 19:05.

Second Period
Scoring: 3, Buffalo, D Ward 7 (unassisted), 7:37. Penalties: Verbeek, Dal (interference), 0:21; Ludwig, Dal (interference), 11:07; Skrudland, Dal (roughing), 14:49; B Holzinger, Buf (boarding), 16:44; Hatcher, Dal (roughing), 20:00; Verbeek, Dal (roughing), 20:00; Hasek, Buf served by Barnes (roughing), 20:00; Zhitnik, Buf (roughing), 20:00.

Third Period
Scoring: None. Penalties: Nieuwendyk, Dal (hooking), 1:06; Langenbrunner, Dal (slashing), 20:00; Reid, Dal (roughing), 20:00; R Warrener, Buf (roughing), 20:00; D Ward, Buf ( double roughing minor), 20:00.

SHOTS ON GOAL

Dallas		9	9	13	--31
Buffalo		7	9	2	--18

Power-play Conversions: Dal - 1 of 3, Buf - 0 of 5. Goalies: Dallas, Belfour (18 shots, 16 saves; record: 14-7-0). Buffalo, Hasek (31, 30; record: 13-4-0). A:18,595. Referees: Marouelli, B Mccreary. Linesmen: Collins, Broseker.

INDIVIDUAL PLAYER STATISTICS

Dallas					Buffalo
	G	A	+/-	Shots		G	A	+/-	Shots
Carbonneau Chambers Hatcher Hrkac Keane Langenbrunner Lehtinen Ludwig Matvichuk Modano Nieuwendyk Reid Sim Skrudland Sloan Sydor Verbeek Zubov	0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	-1 -2 even even -1 -1 even -2 even even -1 -1 even even even even -1 even	3 2 1 1 1 2 3 2 2 3 1 1 1 0 0 3 2 3	B Holzinger Barnes Brown Cunneyworth D Ward Juneau Mckee Patrick Peca Primeau R Warrener Rasmussen Sanderson Satan Smehlik Varada Woolley Zhitnik	0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0	0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0	+1 +1 even even +1 even +1 +1 +1 even +1 even +1 even even +1 +1 even	1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 3 1 0 1 2 3 0 0 1 2

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Top 5 Post-Game Quotes

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1. Craig Ludwig on his second period turnover - "I could have done 10 different things. I could have fell on it, or I could have picked it up and thrown it in the stands."

2. Brian Skrudland on the pressure - "This is all pressure isn’t it? This is for the Stanley Cup!"

3. Jay McKee on being the underdog - "We have been the underdogs each series now. We are happy with the way things are going and we want to disappoint the Dallas fans by breaking down their parade."

4. Ken Hitchcock on frustration after Ward's goal - "Ward's goal -- is that the one on Ludwig -- yeah, we were really playing well at that time. We had real good control and the feeling on the bench was you could hear the guys talking: Look, it is really coming. It is really coming. We have really got home movement."

5. Mike Modano on the tight series - "It is getting a little heated, frustration building on both sides. It is time to dig in and get dirty because there is a huge prize on the line."

FOR MORE QUOTES, LISTEN TO THE POST-GAME PRESS CONFERENCE ON REAL AUDIO

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Sabre Sword's 3 Stars Swords of the Game

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1. Dixon Ward - Ward got both the game-winning goal and the hit of the game by finishing off 6'5, 225 Darian Hatcher and sending him down to the ground.

2. Dominik Hasek - Hasek spoke out before game four that he will come through and guess what... Hasek came through.

3. Randy Cunneyworth - Cunneyworth's picked up where he left off with Rochester. He saved a goal, made some hits, and had some solid shifts in game four.

HONORABLE MENTION - Geoff Sanderson, Eddie Belfour, Vaclav Varada, Joe Nieuwendyk.