In-charge Hurricanes head to Buffalo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cory Stillman scored the game-winner 8:46 into overtime as the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 in the NHL on Sunday to edge ahead in their Eastern Conference finals showdown.

Stillman fired a shot from in front of the net off a rebound past Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller for his second overtime winner of the post-season to give the Hurricanes a 3-2 series lead.

"We're excited," Stillman told reporters. "We're going back and we want to finish it there in Buffalo."

Game Six in the best-of-seven series will be played Tuesday night in Buffalo. The winner of the series meets the Edmonton Oilers for the Stanley Cup.

"This is a big win for our hockey club, obviously," Carolina coach Peter Laviolette told reporters.

"It was a game we needed to win to keep home ice and we showed a lot of character coming back after being down like we were."

Stillman's power play goal completed a Carolina comeback from a 3-1 deficit and put the Hurricanes one game away from eliminating the injury-riddled Sabres, who are missing three regular defensemen.

"Nobody can write about our defense tonight, they can just write about how well we played and how we took it to them," said Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff.

Ruff then criticized the Hurricanes for what he said was their attempts at trying to draw penalties for most of the night.

"Every time you hit them they look over their shoulder and look at the referee," Ruff complained.

Carolina went 2-for-7 on the power play while the Sabres failed to connect in the four extra man chances they had. Buffalo also lost in overtime for the first time in five overtime games this post-season.

Chris Drury opened the scoring for the Sabres at 7:08 of the opening period, but Justin Williams tied the game just 17 seconds later.

Derek Roy put Buffalo ahead again with his goal 10 minutes later, putting the injury-riddled Sabres up 2-1 after one period.

Toni Lydman put the Sabres ahead by two goals 1:55 into the second period, and that goal spelled the end of the night for Carolina's starting goalie Martin Gerber.

Cam Ward replaced Gerber and made several key saves as the Hurricanes fought back to tie the game, setting the stage for overtime.

Mark Recchi got Carolina back to within a goal at 5:21 of the second period and Rod Brind'Amour's goal five minutes later tied the game.

That was it for the scoring until the overtime, as Carolina was out-shot 7-1 in the third period, with both teams finishing with 26 shots on goal each.

"We used a lot of energy and emotion to get back to tie the game at 3-3 because we seemed to go a little flat in the third period, which isn't typical of us," Laviolette said.

Ward stopped all 15 shots he faced, including a huge save on a breakaway by Maxim Afinogenov late in the third period. Eric Staal had an assist for the Hurricanes, stretching his post-season scoring streak to 15 games.

Carolina is trying to get back to the Cup finals for the second time in four years, having lost to the Detroit Red Wings in five games in 2002.

(Writing by Roger Lajoie in Moncton)