Sabres Welcome Back Hasek in 4-2 Win Over Maple Leafs

For a change, Dominik Hasek didn’t dominate. He simply had to play to spark the Buffalo Sabres.

The all-star goalie, who had sat out the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals because of an injured groin, made an emotional return Thursday night and stopped 24 shots. That was more than enough for his teammates, who rallied for a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at Buffalo, N.Y., to take a 2-1 series lead.

“I felt pretty tired, I didn’t practice the last couple of days,” said Hasek, who made three huge stops in the third period with the Maple Leafs trailing by a goal. “My groin felt pretty good and there was no extra pain.”

Said Sabre Coach Lindy Ruff: “To get Dom back between the pipes, you could just see the energy in the dressing room. It gave us a big lift.”

And so did the return of Miroslav Satan, who started the three-goal, second-period flurry that won the game. After falling behind, 1-0, the Sabres got goals from Satan, Joe Juneau and Stu Barnes just over seven minutes apart.

“I’m glad it worked out,” said Satan, who had sat out the previous nine games because of an injured foot. “It was a great relief. I wanted to prove to everybody I can be an offensive force.”

Satan’s goal came at 3:07 and tied the score at 1-1.

“We’ve always said from Game 1 that we’re a good team when we’re healthy,” Ruff said. “And we’re still a good team when we’re not so healthy. When you’re down a goal, you know Miro is sitting there.”

A hooking penalty to Buffalo defenseman James Patrick only 22 seconds later seemed to spark the Sabres and their sparkplug captain, Michael Peca.

The 5-foot-11 center, Buffalo’s leading scorer in the playoffs but held without a shot in the first two games after playing a dozen games against three 6-4 centers, finally came alive.

Peca scooped up a loose puck at center ice, crossed the Toronto line and unleashed a hard drive that hit a stick in front of Joseph. The puck then ricocheted off the goalie’s right skate out in front to the unguarded Juneau, and he flipped it into the empty net at 3:45.

“It’s important any time you can get guys back in the lineup,” Peca said. “The depth is phenomenal right now. We didn’t know what to expect.”

Around the NHL

The Pittsburgh Penguins plan to argue today in bankruptcy court that an onerous lease blamed for the team’s financial troubles is in large part a loan that is nearly paid off. Separately, former Penguin star center and NHL Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux’s plan to save the team from dissolution calls for paying leaseholder SMG $15 million to buy out the agreement. But, if the Penguins prevail in their argument that most of the lease is really an almost-satisfied loan, the value of the lease would drop considerably, perhaps relieving Lemieux of having to make that payment. “This is huge,” said Lemieux’s attorney, Doug Campbell. . . . Backup goalie Bill Ranford of the Detroit Red Wings cleared waivers, making the 14-year veteran a free agent and allowing the team to shed his $3.1-million salary for next season. Ranford was forced into action during the Western Conference semifinals against the Colorado Avalanche after Chris Osgood suffered a knee injury. He posted wins in the first two games but was pulled in the second periods of the next two games after giving up eight goals in about 60 combined minutes. The Red Wings then lost the seven-game series with Osgood in net for Games 5 and 6.