Jason Williams leads Atlanta Thrashers past Buffalo Sabres 5-4 in OT

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Jason Williams scored his second goal of the game 48 seconds into overtime, and Bryan Little had two goals and an assist in the Atlanta Thrashers' 5-4 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night.

On a power play, Williams lifted a rebound off a shot from Ilya Kovalchuk over goalie Ryan Miller to give the Thrashers their third straight victory.

Todd White also scored for the Thrashers, who last won three straight in February. Atlanta (5-7-2) won for the first time in seven road games this season.

Slava Kozlov extended his points streak to five games with three assists for the Thrashers.

Thomas Vanek scored his NHL-leading 12th goal, and Clarke MacArthur, Ales Kotalik and Maxim Afinogenov also scored for the Sabres.

Atlanta goalie Johan Hedberg finished with 28 stops in making only his third appearance of the season.

Miller, coming off consecutive shutouts of Washington and New Jersey, made 21 saves to fall to 7-1-2.

Buffalo welcomed back centre Jochen Hecht, who had missed the last 10 games because of a broken right middle finger.

With Atlanta down a goal after 40 minutes, White tied it on the power play eight minutes into the third, lifting a shot over Miller from the slot to make it 4-4.

The Thrashers opened the scoring just over four minutes in, as Williams snapped Miller's 149-minute, 12-second shutout sequence with a wicked wrist shot from the slot.

MacArthur tied it four minutes later, and Kotalik put Buffalo ahead 2-1 with a power-play goal while Atlanta was down two men with 1:20 left in the first period.

Little tied it with his first of the game just under four minutes into the second period, sliding the puck underneath Miller while being hauled down by Sabres defenceman Toni Lydman.

Afinogenov notched his first of the season at 7:30 before Little knotted it at three with his eighth of the year with five minutes to go in the middle period.

Fifty seconds, Vanek gave the Sabres a 4-3 lead after two periods when he deflected Tim Connolly's slapshot from the middle of the blue-line.

Notes: Prior to the game the Sabres placed C Matt Ellis on waivers in preparation to send him to Portland of the AHL. ... Atlanta D Mathieu Schneider missed his second game because of a hip flexor. ... The two teams won't meet again until March 14 in Buffalo. ... Hedberg improved to 9-2-1 lifetime against the Sabres.