Early start for kids day today with the Lightning in town and the Sabres coming off two 3-0 shutout wins for UPL against the Sharks and Blackhawks. The Sabres played pretty well, but two early turnovers and the inability to find the back of the net on good opportunities to score lead to the 3-1 loss.

Nick Paul and the Lightning ended Luukkonen’s shutout streak 6:14 into today’s game, scoring on some nice tic-tac-toe passing after they forced a turnover in the Sabres zone to put the Bolt ups 1-0. Just 52 seconds later, Tyler Motte stole the puck on the Sabres power play, streaked up the ice and quickly made it 2-0 Lightning just with his shorthanded goal short side on UPL. Honestly not as awful of a first period defensively, limiting Tampa to just five shots on goal, but the two goals on those five shot came off brutal turnovers, mistakes that you can’t make against a good team like the Lightning. The offense didn’t get much going other than a few solid scoring chances on odd man rushes, but just generating seven shots on Johansson. 

With 6:08 to go in the second period, Dylan Cozen got the Sabres on the board with a nicely placed shot glove side right in front after some good work by Peterka down low. Much better period for Buffalo on both ends of the ice to be just a goal back after 40 minutes.

After a really good third period for Buffalo, we weren’t able to score given the chances and Calvin de Haan ended the game with an empty net goal to give Tampa the 3-1 victory.

FINAL: Sabres 1, Lightning 3

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This wasn’t a terrible game. The Sabres played honestly really well and although they had their chances, just couldn’t score. The two turnovers that led to the goals in the first period was really what amounted to the loss. Otherwise, this wasn’t bad. We outshot the Bolts 28-16 and out chanced them. The penalty kill for the Sabres shut down Tampa’s league leading power play on their three opportunities. Lousy officiating that even Brian and Marty mentioned in the postgame report might’ve made a bit of an impact but two simple turnovers and the inability to find the back of the net on good opportunities to score lead to the loss.

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