Early in the season, winger Adam Mair went unclaimed on waivers. He dressed in just three of the Buffalo Sabres' first 15 games. But since becoming a fixture in the lineup, his contributions have not gone unnoticed even if they made no dent on the score sheet.

That's changed the last two games. Mair scored his first goal of the season Monday in

Vancouver and made it tallies in back-to-back games for the first time in his career in

Wednesday's 2-1 shootout victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Mair played a season-high 13 minutes, 41 seconds Monday and pushed that total to 14:10

Wednesday. He was the final Sabre to get a goal this season.

"There was a little friendly bet in the room," Mair said with a laugh about being the final

goal scorer. "Suffice to say I lost."

Mair was one of five Sabres who entered Wednesday's game with one goal. The others are

Nathan Paetsch, Toni Lydman, Chris Butler and captain Craig Rivet, who beat Mair to his first

of the season by two games when he scored in Thursday's shootout loss in Los Angeles.

Mair had a career-high eight goals last season but had not scored since March 28, 2009 at

Montreal.

"It felt nice," admitted Mair, who added No. 2 in the first period Wednesday by tipping

home a Derek Roy shot. "Just getting opportunities and being around the net is good. When

those aren't coming is when you want to change things and make adjustments. I've been getting

chances."

With Drew Stafford sidelined by the flu, Mair played with Tim Kennedy and Matt Ellis on

Monday. He moved up to the third line Wednesday, getting plenty of time with Thomas Vanek and

Roy.

"You always want to contribute offensively but my contributions don't always have to extend

that way," Mair said. "I need to go hard to the net and get around the paint."

. . .

Paetsch and Andrej Sekera found out when they reported to the arena for the game that they

would be in the lineup. Paetsch, who cleared waivers recently, had sat for 12 games and had

not played since Dec. 29. Sekera's 13-game string in the press box dated to Dec. 27.

"When they put me and [Sekera] in there, we have some offensive abilities," Paetsch said.

"That's what we bring to the table.

"We'll get up on the rush and it's one of the things we're both good at."

Paetsch and Sekera went in for Steve Montador and Lydman, who took a seat after some subpar

play in the final two games of the road trip in San Jose and Vancouver.

Stafford, who sat out Monday's game in Vancouver with the flu, came back for Clarke

MacArthur. Despite having 13 goals and being two off the team lead, MacArthur is a team-worst

minus-12.

. . .

Play-by-play announcer Rick Jeanneret extended his vacation by one game and is expected

back for Friday's visit by Boston. He was replaced Wednesday by Steve Kouleas of the Score

Network in Toronto.

. . .

The Sabres will be involved in USA Hockey's Hockey Week Across America events beginning

Friday. On Friday, the team is encouraging players of all ages and skill levels to wear

jerseys to school, be it of their favorite NHL or youth team.

On Saturday, Sabretooth will be on hand in the former Amherst Pepsi Center as children can

bring a friend to the rink to try hockey for free from 10:50 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. More

information is available at sabres.com.