The Sabres were on a pretty good run, coming into tonight on a three game win streak, but that ended tonight with a 5-2 loss to the Panthers that was honestly better than I expected it would be.
On just their second shot of the game, 11:01 into the first period, the Panthers capitalized on a two on one chance as Jesper Boqvist beat UPL to give Florida a 1-0 lead off lousy defensive play for the Sabres. They pretty quickly made it 2-0, as former Sabre Sam Reinhart scored on the power play right in front right off a beautiful backhand pass from Barkov from behind the net with 8:04 remaining in the first. The Sabres just made too many mistakes there with sloppy defensive play in that first period which led to that deficit despite outshooting Florida 8-6.
The Sabres got on the board 10:45 into the second period on the power play as Jason Zucker scored on a sick play, batting Tage Thompson shot out of the air, off the post and into the net past Bobrovsky. With 7:23 left in the second, Rasmus Dahlin made a nice play in front to tie up the game at two. The Buffalo offense poured on the pressure pretty well. Florida came back before the period ended though and with 3:16 left, Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, and Matthew Tkachuk entered the zone with speed in transition, Tkachuk took a nice shot that got the rebound right in front for Verhaeghe to just tap it past UPL into the net to put Florida up 3-2.
On the power play with Dahlin in the box, Sam Bennettt ripped a shot from the top of the circle and beat Luukkonen to put the Panthers up 4-2 with 5:24 remaining in the game. With 4:17 left in the game, Sasha Barkov ripped a sick shot past UPL to hit the over and really cap off the game, making it 5-2 in his first game back from injury.
FINAL: Sabres 2, Panthers 5
Honestly the effort by the Sabres was better than I expected tonight. Not a chance they were going on a four game win streak and even more so, no shot they were beating Florida twice this early in the season. This was a competitive game until the Panthers broke the tie late in the third. Buffalo came back from a 2-0 deficit which was good to see. The offense had some decent chances and especially late in the second sustained pressure in the Florida zone, but couldn’t solve Bobrovsky. We got outshot 31-28 and outplayed by an expected goal rate of 3.79-1.9, but I didn’t think we looked awful. Really the biggest issue for them was staying out of the box, giving up two key goals to Florida’s power play.
Back in action on Friday night as the homestand concludes against the Isles.
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