BUFFALO (LGS) — Three Buffalo Sabres have been officially announced to the Eastern Conference starting lineup for the 2007 NHL All-Star Game which will be held in Dallas on January 24th. The starting lineups for both conferences — as selected by fan balloting on NHL.com — were announced during the first intermission of tonight's Versus hockey telecast.

Buffalo's Daniel Briere, Brian Campbell and Ryan Miller will each make their first all-star appearances headlining a relatively-young Eastern squad. They will be joined by Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, Washington's Alexander Ovechkin and Montreal's Sheldon Souray.

The 29-year-old Briere notched 475,857 votes, which ranked second among Eastern Conference forwards; a few hundred over the Capitals' Ovechkin. The Sabres' co-captain leads the team in points with 49.

Continuing his amazing turnaround story, Campbell's 602,982 votes was third most amongst all players. The 27-year-old from Strathroy, Ontario — who leads Sabres' defensemen with a +17 and 26 points — led all defensemen in voting.

After leading his team to the Eastern Conference finals last spring as a rookie, the 26-year-old Miller will now lead the Eastern Conference All-Stars. His 539,635 votes was most amongst all goaltenders.

Maxim Afinogenov fell just 6,000 votes shy of unseating Ovechkin for the final forward spot.

The East will be coached by Sabres' head coach Lindy Ruff, who plans on giving his squad plenty of freedom.

"I think a very lightly structured game plan," Ruff said. "I think the competitiveness of the players will really take over."

The Western Conference forwards will feature San Jose's Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo along with Colorado's Joe Sakic. Anaheim's Scott Niedermayer and Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom will headline the West blueline and Vancouver's Roberto Luongo will get the start in net.

The West will be coached by Anaheim's Randy Carlyle.

Vancouver's journeyman-defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick and the "Vote for Rory" campaign fell 23,000 votes short of their improbable goal. It did, however, receive a record tally for write-in votes with 550,177.

The complete All-Star rosters as well as the NHL YoungStars Game rosters will be announced this Saturday on CBC's Hockey Day in Canada coverage. Buffalo's Maxim Afinogenov, Chris Drury and Thomas Vanek are strong contenders to join an already Buffalo-heavy All-Star team.

2007 Eastern Conference Starting Lineup:

2007 Western Conference Starting Lineup: