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DETROIT (Ticker) -- The Buffalo Sabres might only now realize what they are missing. Dominik Hasek made 29 saves in his first game against his former team and Brendan Shanahan scored twice as the Detroit Red Wings rebounded from their first loss of the season with a 4-2 victory over the Sabres. A six-time Vezina Trophy winner, Hasek spent the last nine seasons with the Sabres before they traded him to the Red Wings on June 30 for left wing Vyacheslav Kozlov, a 2002 first-round pick and future considerations. The 36-year-old Czech was coming off Wednesday's 4-2 loss to the Calgary Flames. Hasek, who also previously played for Chicago, improved to 3-0-0 lifetime against the Sabres, who got the early jump on their former star before Detroit took control with a three-goal second period. "It feels good. It's my first win at home," Hasek said. "I didn't feel good after the last game and now there was more pressure because I'm facing my old team. It was very exciting to play against my teammates. It didn't look very good at the beginning, but then we played better and got some goals." "We were treating it as any other game," Sabres right wing Miroslav Satan said. "There was not much said about Dom before the game. We knew we were going to work hard and create some chances and we knew we were going to score some goals on him." Fredrik Olausson's first tally of the season 17:34 into the second period put the Red Wings on top for good and Hasek held on in the third, when the Sabres peppered the netminder for 12 shots. "I played over there for nine years and I know how difficult it is to get goals," he added. Hasek's biggest moment came with just under three minutes remaining when he kicked out Maxim Afinogenov's floater from the bottom of the right circle. He corraled the rebound before J.P. Dumont had a chance to pounce on it. "(Afinogenov) almost scored through my five-hole," Hasek added. "I almost made a mistake because it wasn't a hard shot. I'm glad it's over, I'm glad I've got my first win at home. I'm glad I beat the Sabres and I'll get another chance at them in March." Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom had two assists to become the club's all-time leader in points among defensemen with 571, surpassing Reed Larson. "I didn't even know about it until after the game," Lidstrom said. "I had no idea. It was a nice surprise." Stu Barnes opened the scoring 16:50 into the contest, taking a feed from Tim Connolly and beating Hasek, who opened the season with consecutive road wins over San Jose and Vancouver. "Dom has been unbelievable," Detroit center Kris Draper said. "I'm sure this was special for him. He had a lot of friends on that team and he wanted to win this one. He made some huge saves." Detroit's Luc Robitaille and Buffalo's Miroslav Satan traded goals in the opening 4:10 of the second period before Shanahan netted his sixth goal of the campaign to tie it, 2-2, with just under five minutes to go. "We're starting to make plays a little better and we will get better as the games go on," Robitaille said. Shortly thereafter, Sergei Fedorov set up along the boards and sent a pass to the top of the left circle for Shahanan, whose toss on net was deflected by Olausson past Martin Biron for the eventual game-winner. "It was very frustrating," Sabres coach Lindy Rufff said. "I thought we came out and played a very good first period. We played horrible in the second, but came right back at it in the third. But when you take 20 minutes off, this is a tough club to beat." It was Olausson's first goal since March 26, 2000 against the Phoenix Coyotes. That is only a span of seven games for the Swede, who spent last season playing in his native country. Lidstrom and Chris Chelios assisted on Shanahan's power-play empty-netter in the waning seconds.
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