Brown’s Goal Sends Sabres Past the Stars

Curtis Brown scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period to lift the Buffalo Sabres to a 5-3 victory over the Dallas Stars Friday night in Buffalo.

Ales Kotalik, Jason Botterill and Stu Barnes each had a goal and an assist, Brian Campbell scored a goal and Miroslav Satan had three assists for the Sabres, 2-1-1 in their last four games.

Brown took a pass from Kotalik behind the net and fired it past Ron Tugnutt from the edge of the right faceoff circle to give the Sabres the lead with 12:22 left.

The Stars thought they tied it with 3:18 left, but replays showed that Claude Lemieux tipped in the shot from the point with a high stick. Botterill added an insurance goal -- his first of the season -- on a power play with 1:29 left.

Biron -- making his fourth consecutive start and 44th appearance of the year -- stopped 31 shots, including 15 in the first period. Tugnutt -- starting his eighth straight game in place of an injured Marty Turco -- stopped 15 shots.

Dallas played without forward Bill Guerin, who bruised a thigh during Thursday night’s game against the Ottawa Senators.

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Canadian billionaire Eugene Melnyk has reconfirmed his interest in buying the near-bankrupt Senators after Rob Bryden’s bid to repurchase the team collapsed when his main investor pulled out of the deal.

Melnyk has advisers prepared to begin the review process to assess the financial and operating information of the organization provided by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the Senators’ court-appointed monitor under its bankruptcy protection agreement.