PHILADELPHIA – Maxim Afinogenov scored for Buffalo in an extra shootout round, extending the Sabres’ road winning streak to nine in a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night.

With the score tied at 1 after overtime, Peter Forsberg and Buffalo’s Tim Connolly traded goals in the first three shots of the shootout.

Afinogenov slipped one past Antero Niittymaki for the Sabres in the fourth round and Mike Knuble’s chance to tie was off the mark, giving the Sabres their seventh straight overall win.

Buffalo’s nine straight road victories are only one shy of the NHL record, set by the Sabres in 1983-84, and matched by St. Louis in 2000 and New Jersey in 2001. And the Sabres did it this time without goalie Martin Biron, given the game off after winning 13 consecutive starts.

Ryan Miller was strong in relief, finishing with 33 saves.

Knuble scored for the Flyers on the same day he was picked for the U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Knuble was one of three Flyers chosen, joining defenseman Derian Hatcher and goalie Robert Esche. All three players earned huge ovations when their selections were announced during the second intermission.

With Esche still out with a nagging groin injury, Niittymaki was outstanding in the net. Niittymaki was pounded with shots while the Flyers played short-handed in the final minutes of overtime, but they were able to kill the penalties.

Niittymaki finished with 27 saves.

The Flyers are missing several key players because of injuries, including leading scorer Simon Gagne.

With both teams failing to generate much offense, Knuble put the Flyers ahead early in the second period with a power-play goal, his 17th of the season.

The Sabres tied it early in the third after a streaking Paul Gaustad took a pass directly in front of the net from Afinogenov and knocked in the puck for his sixth goal.

The Flyers took 13 of their 32 regulation shots in the third period, and played most of the game’s final 2 minutes with a 5-on-4 advantage, but were stymied by Miller.

Notes: Flyers LW Josh Gratton was whistled for two fighting majors in the first period. He led Philadelphia’s AHL affiliate with 146 penalty minutes in 29 games. … Flyers RW Sami Kapanen had his point streak end at five games. … Biron has a 2.34 goals-against average and .918 save percentage since his winning streak began.

AP-ES-12-19-05 2154EST