BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Andy Greene was placed in an unfamiliar role on Friday night, and the New Jersey Devils captain delivered.

The steady defenseman was given a penalty shot opportunity 29 seconds into overtime and scored to lead his team to a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

"A blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while," Greene said. "I came in and I was just trying to be patient there. Make sure I don't fall and get a decent shot off."

The penalty shot came after Greene was obstructed by Sabres left winger Evander Kane on a partial breakaway. Green skated to his right before cutting inside and firing a wrist shot that went through Buffalo goaltender Anders Nilsson's legs.

"It's a good opportunity for him," New Jersey head coach John Hynes said. "He worked to get in that position. Andy is a very good player, he has been around a long time and it was nice to see him get rewarded."

Yohann Auvitu scored in regulation for the Devils (7-3-3). Keith Kinkaid made 25 saves.

Matt Moulson scored in regulation for Buffalo (5-5-4). Nilsson made 41 saves.

"I thought we had a great first period," Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma said. "Forced the play, got some opportunities, got some chances. ... We had a number of great looks, weren't able to come up with that second goal."

Moulson opened the scoring on the power play midway through the first period. As Ryan O'Reilly and Sam Reinhart tried to corral a bouncing puck near the net, Moulson stepped up and slammed a one-timer home at 10:34 for his fifth goal of the year. All of Moulson's goals this year have come on the power play.

The Devils came on strong to open the third period before Auvitu evened the score 3:13 into the period with his first career goal. With traffic obstructing Nilsson's view in front of the net, Auvitu's long shot from the left point went untouched into the top corner of the net. New Jersey had a 7-1 edge in shots at the time of Auvitu's goal and would go on to outshoot Buffalo 12-2 midway through the period and 18-5 at the end of the period.

Both backup goaltenders made their share of quality saves throughout the evening. Nilsson helped the Sabres kill a lengthy 5-on-3 advantage for the Devils late in the second period, while Kinkaid was strong early on a clear chance for rugged Sabres winger Marcus Foligno.

Buffalo came up big by killing off a four-minute New Jersey power play late in the third period after Kane received a double minor for high sticking.

"Played a great game, played strong again and gave us a chance to win a game," Bylsma said of Nilsson. "He was a part of that penalty kill, several big saves."

Sabres center Ryan O'Reilly left the game early in the third period and did not return. Bylsma said that O'Reilly aggravated a previous injury in the faceoff circle and is considered day-to-day.

The Devils have won three games in a row and have momentum on their side heading into a repeat matchup at home on Saturday.

"We've had a pretty decent schedule in terms of days off," Greene said. "We've been mostly healthy and we have to take advantage to us because later this month our schedule gets really, really tough, a lot of travel and we've got to make sure we come in and try to take care of business tomorrow night."

NOTES: Devils LW Michael Cammalleri was a late scratch due to personal reasons. Cammalleri had a hat trick in the Devils' previous road game, a 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. LW Reid Boucher was also scratched for the Devils. ... D Zach Bogosian (knee sprain), D Dmitry Kulikov (undisclosed) and LW Cole Schneider were scratched for the Sabres. Schneider is a recent call-up from the AHL's Rochester Americans and picked up his first career point in Wednesday's shootout loss to Ottawa. ... This was the first of three meetings between the teams this season. They meet again on Saturday in the second part of a home-and-home series in New Jersey.