by By RICH THOMPSON , The Boston Herald

Rask made 28 saves in last night's 4-2 win at the Garden. He benefited from exceptional work by the Bruins defensemen, who muscled the Sabres out of the crease and prevented second-chance opportunities.

The Sabres thrive on creating traffic and crashing all three forwards toward the net. Rask, who improved to 3-1-1 with a 2.33 goals-against average, was expecting Buffalo to stick with the formula.

``We saw some video footage of them before the game and they do that,'' Rask said of the Sabres knack for creating a traffic jam. ``That's what they do all the time. They try to stuff the puck to the net and get guys in there. I think we, especially our (defensemen), did a good job of keeping those sticks away.''

Rask posted a 2-0 shutout over Edmonton in his previous start a week earlier. He extended his shutout streak to 114:41 before Derek Roy tallied for the Sabres early in the second period.

Punching in

Shawn Thornton was knocking people around from his opening shift and it was only matter of time before he would find a willing adversary. Thornton found his dance partner at 14:29 of the first while the teams were lined up for a faceoff.

Thornton and Steve Montador, the Buffalo defenseman who spent the tail end of last season with the Bruins, squared off in the neutral zone. The opening sequence featured a lot of grabbing and shoulder pad shifting after Thornton's initial punch was off the mark. The fight heated up when Thornton knocked Montador's helmet to the ice. When the bout shifted to the far boards, Thornton unloaded consecutive haymakers that sent Montador to the ice. Thornton exited the box following a whistle and was greeted with a huge ovation as he entered the home team's bench area.

``The fans in Boston have always been great to me, a meatball from the fourth line,'' Thornton said.

Thornton wasn't finished. The winger had an encore dustup with Paul Gaustad in the third period that ended with a quick takedown of the Sabres forward.

Defenseman Mark Stuart got the better of an exchange with Buffalo center Jochen Hecht in the third.

Paille misses

Daniel Paille was presented with three excellent chances to spite his old team - and squandered all of them.

The forward exited the penalty box at 15:10 of the first period and was sent in on a clean breakaway on Buffalo rookie goalie Jhonas Enroth. Paille skated into the slot but fired the puck directly into Enroth's left pad.

The former Sabre, acquired last month for draft picks, later misfired on an open shot from the inner half of the left circle and had a final opportunity to score with 12 seconds to play, but his clearing shot went a foot wide of the Sabres open net.

Bitz and bits

Byron Bitz, absent for the previous three games with a groin injury, was cleared to play following the morning skate. The right winger made his return count by scoring his second goal of the season.

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