worst 4.27.Tierney scored on a tap-in midway through the second period to get the Senators within 3-1, but Dumba countered with a long shot late in the second.Dumba has five goals and two assists during

BUFFALO John Moore Jersey Womens , N.Y. (AP) The Buffalo Bills were so dull during their lean years, comedian Nick Bakay feared his body would fuse to the couch while watching them play.”It’s an incredibly disturbing image,” Bakay said of wasting away Sundays witnessing his hometown team sleepwalk through one loss after another during a 17-season playoff drought that ended last year.”I never missed a Bills game. But I was always slumped on my couch. I was never sitting forward. I was never jumping to my feet,” said Bakay, who wrote ”Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and its sequel, and produced and appeared on the TV sitcom ”King of Queens.” ”You sit on your couch, and your couch slowly eats you.”No different for fans of Buffalo’s other pro sports franchise, the NHL’s Sabres, who finished last for the third time in five years and extended their franchise-worst playoff drought to a seventh season.In a shot-and-a-beer town where the winters are interminably long, Buffalo sports fans ride things out on the notion of renewal always being just around the corner.And there’s a new, palpable optimism for this hearty fan base, thanks to a three-day stretch which showed potential to alter the trajectory of both teams.First, the Bills made a pair of splashes in the first round of the NFL draft on April 26 by trading up to select Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen and Virginia Tech linebacker Tremaine Edmunds.Two days later, the Sabres won the NHL draft lottery – something Buffalo lost the previous two times it finished last – and the opportunity to select projected No. 1 pick, Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.During the NFL draft, CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor got dirty looks from his wife during a rare dinner date sneaking peeks at the Bills’ picks. He then yelped with excitement upon learning the Sabres won the lottery while attending the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington.”I had just resigned myself to never winning it,” Glor said. ”But listen, I always have hope.”In Buffalo Chris Wagner Jersey Womens , there’s a fine line between affection and affliction for hope.”I always try to keep it in check a little bit,” said Glor, who grew up in the Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda.”Unfortunately, you get conditioned to where there are times you can be defeatist. And you try not to be. But you just don’t give up.”Fans have little choice but to persevere in a place where nickname-worthy moments are tied to losses.For the Bills, it’s ”Wide Right,” after kicker Scott Norwood missed a last-second field-goal attempt in a 20-19 loss to the New York Giants in the 1991 Super Bowl – the first of four consecutive Super Bowl losses.For the Sabres, it’s ”No Goal,” following a 2-1, triple-overtime loss to Dallas in Game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup Final. Brett Hull’s Cup-clinching goal stood even though replays showed his skate in the crease.Those were the so-called glory days.The Bills and Sabres have won five playoff games combined since 2008. By comparison, the NHL’s expansion Vegas Golden Knights have already won eight in their first year of existence.Buffalo joins Nashville, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina, as the only North American markets with two or more major pro teams to not have won a title.”I think it builds character in a way. I joke with my friends that one day my kids will have to go through therapy because we are Sabres, Bills and Mets fans,” said former VH1-cable TV chief Tom Calderone, who’s from Long Island, New York Alex Galchenyuk Jersey Womens , but got his broadcasting start in Buffalo and maintains a home in the city. ”It’s easy to be a Cowboys fan or a Patriots fan. But it takes true dedication to be a Bills or Sabres fan.”Calderone sees more hope reflected in signs of resurgence for the city itself.The former site of the Erie Canal has been transformed from vacant gravel lots to parkland, a water park that doubles as an ice rink in winter, and an entertainment/hockey complex built by Bills and Sabres owner Terry Pegula.Housing prices have tripled and a medical corridor is newly bustling along Main Street, where shuttered and boarded-up buildings have been renovated or replaced by new steel and glass structures.Buffalo still has its rust-belt blemishes as one of the nation’s poorest cities. Racial inequities, failing schools and a crumbling infrastructure remain issues.The Bills and Sabres aren’t immune to troubling headlines. Last week, the two teams’ president Russ Brandon resigned amid allegations of having inappropriate relationships with female employees.Buffalo might never regain the industrial-age prominence it held in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the city became a Great Lakes shipping hub as the gateway to the Erie Canal.Nor, however, should it become the punchline comedian Jon Stewart once delivered during a stop in Buffalo, calling the city the gateway to the Ontario border town of Fort Erie just across the Niagara River – population 30,000.Watching a documentary on former Bills running back O.J. Simpson, Bakay was reminded of the gloomy times in the 1970s when the steel mills began closing and legions of people left to find jobs.”It depressed me so much,” he said. ”Every shot of Buffalo looked like a moose that farted into the sky.”The decline led to Buffalo investing its psyche into its sports teams as a way of remaining part of the national conversation.”Our teams were the only way we could punch back and say, `Yeah, we’re here,”’ Bakay said.Allen and the prospect of adding Dahlin have recaptured his imagination as to what’s possible.”It’s like all of a sudden we’ve got go-big-or-go-home-talent coming our way,” Bakay said.He recalled how the Bills once pinned their hopes on quarterback Trent Edwards, who earned the nickname ”Captain Checkdown” for being overly cautious.”After years of the Trent Edwards of the world Carter Rowney Jersey Womens , we get a kid who has that kind of talent,” Bakay said.Maybe, he’ll finally be able to get off that couch.”I don’t think we need any kind of help of, `Can we believe?’ We can believe in a bag of doughnuts,” Bakay said. ”But that weekend was like, `Oh my god. Things are really happening. Pinch me.”’—This story has been corrected to note Tom Calderone is from Long Island, New York. ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Eric Staal ensured two solid periods didn’t go to waste for the Minnesota Wild.Staal scored his second goal of the game with 5:58 left and Minnesota overcame a sloppy third period to beat the Ottawa Senators 6-4 on Wednesday night.Matt Dumba also scored twice as the Wild ended a two-game slide and won for the 12th time in 17 games. Mikael Granlund had three assists.“We gutted it out and got the job done,” Staal said. “It doesn’t matter how you do it.”Down by three to start the final period, Ottawa’s Thomas Chabot made it 4-2 with a short-handed goal 24 seconds in. Christian Jaros scored his first career goal midway through the period, and Colin White scored 83 seconds later to tie it and send Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk to the bench.“I’ve never made that change in my life. I don’t want to make that change,” Minnesota coach Bruce Boudreau said. “But I thought we needed a break, and we needed something without calling a timeout. Sometimes you call a timeout and that energizes the other team because they think you’re afraid.”On the winner, Jason Zucker controlled the puck behind the Ottawa net before blindly sending a backhand pass in front. Charging down the slot, Staal put the puck behind Craig Anderson.Eric Fehr added an empty-net goal, and Alex Stalock made one save down the stretch to get the win.“It just kind of feels like a waste,” said Chris Tierney, who also scored for Ottawa. “You work that hard to get back and to give it up a couple minutes later is a sour feeling.”This was the start of a four-game trip for the Senators.The Wild were 2 for 4 on the power play against the league’s worst short-handed team. Ottawa is at 67.1 percent on the penalty kill.Staal scored Minnesota’s second power-play goal on a one-timer from the slot six minutes into the second period with a follow-through that dropped him to one knee for a 3-0 lead.Dumba scored on the man advantage with 9.9 seconds left in the first period.Minnesota has scored at least one power-play goal in five straight games (seven goals) and 10 of its past 13 Luke Schenn Jersey Womens , going 14 for 47 in that span.“We showed that we can score goals, but we also showed that we’re far away from having a defensive awareness and everything that we need to do defensively to be able to win games on a regular basis,” Ottawa coach Guy Boucher said.Scoring 3.59 goals per game, Ottawa trails only Tampa Bay, but the Senators allow a league-worst 4.27.Tierney scored on a tap-in midway through the second period to get the Senators within 3-1, but Dumba countered with a long shot late in the second.Dumba has five goals and two assists during a career high-tying five-game point streak. His 10 goals are a league high for defenseman, and his four power-play goals are also best by a blue liner. He’s the sixth defenseman since 1989-90 with 10 or more goals through 22 team games, joining Shea Weber, Al MacInnis, Ray Bourque, Gary Suter and Jeff Brown.Dumba, who had a career-high 14 last season, is on pace for 39.“Yeah, that’d be something else,” Dumba said with a laugh. “That’s not happening.”The Wild and Senators each have a league-high 20 goals from their defensemen.NOTES: Jordan Greenway also scored for Minnesota. . Dubnyk had 22 saves and Anderson had 28. … Wild LW Marcus Foligno played. He left Sunday’s game after taking a shot off the outside of his right leg that caused him to briefly lose feeling in the leg. … Ottawa LW Mikkel Boedker recorded his 300th career point with an assist on Tierney’s goal.UP NEXT:Senators: At Dallas on Friday night.Wild: Host Winnipeg on Friday.