Vanek dominates in Sabres 7-4 win

BOSTON - Thomas Vanek filled the last two periods with spectacular plays, leading the Buffalo Sabres past Boston 7-4 Thursday night.

Vanek finished with his second five-point game of the season - the first Sabres player to do that in a single season in 20 years.

He opened the scoring in the second period, before Boston reeled off three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead.

Vanek tipped in a Christian Ehrhoff shot on a 5-on-3 power play to cut the lead back to one, before making a diving pass to Tyler Ennis for the game-tying goal less than two minutes later.

Boston took a 4-3 lead early in the third period, but again Buffalo would answer. Alexander Sulzer found the net to tie the game at 4-4.

The rest of the night belonged to Vanek. He played the puck off the boards to himself to create a 2-on-1 opportunity and dished it to Cody Hodgson for the go-ahead goal.

Vanek finished his hat trick late in the game on a breakaway. Jason Pominville would add an empty-netter for the 7-4 win.

Ryan Miller stopped 38 shots in the victory.

Buffalo now heads to Montreal for a matchup Saturday afternoon at 2pm.