Tonight on national TV, the Sabres played a fantastic, very entertaining game against the Lightning on the road, ultimately losing 6-5 in a shockingly game that had you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.
Tampa got on the board pretty early five minutes into the game with Nick Paul on the rush, going right around Bryson, and then trying to pass it to Cirelli streaking up the other side of the ice, but the puck deflected off Clifton and right in the net, five hole on UPL. Rasmus Dahlin answered right back for Buffalo just 16 seconds later on the rush back the other way to tie it up at 1-1 on a great shot glove side, beating Vasilevskiy. Not even a minute later though, Tampa took that lead back 6:53 into to the game, with a shot from the point by Mitchell Chaffee taking a bad bounce way high over Luukkonen’s head and into the net. Bad luck, but what else do you expect to happen to Buffalo. Fun start to this tilt. The Sabres tied the game again, with 11:40 left in the first, with Alex Tuch getting the puck after a turnover by Tampa and racing up the ice knot it up at 2 on a goal that Vasilevskiy should’ve probably saved. With 2:51 left in the first, Buffalo took their first lead of the game on a horrible defensive breakdown for the Lightning defense, leaving Peyton Krebs wide open in the slot, to finish off a 2 on 2 with Ryan McLeod on the rush, his first goal in 23 games. Way better first period than I anticipated here, with a fun back and forth game. We capitalized on chances while the Bolts looked a bit sloppy in their start defensively, as we outshot the Lightning 12-7 and were rewarded with a bit of a surprising 3-2 lead.
The Lightning tied up the game right away, less than a minute into the second, with Jake Guentzel getting his 30th of the season, tipping in past UPL to make it a 3-3 game. Tage Thompson, drawing a penalty to lead to a Sabres power play, gave the Sabres the lead back with just their second shot of the second period on an absolute rip of a shot, 9:35 into period. JJ Peterka made it a 5-3 lead for Buffalo, on a great steal of Kucherov and an absolutely perfect shot, top shelf, glove side over Vazzy. Impressive. Jake Guentzel with his second of the night got Tampa back within one, getting to the perfect spot in front with 2:17 to go in the second, on a nice little spin move, beating UPL in the crease to make it a 5-4 game. Guentzel made the hats rain down in Tampa with 1:14 left in the first, getting his hat trick goal on the power play to tie up the game at 5-5. Anyone’s game now.
Tampa took the lead back 1:40 into the third, as Oliver Bjorkstrand scored his first goal as a Bolt, tipping in the rebound from the shot of the other recently acquired player by the Lightning, Yanni Gourde. The Lightning missed two great shots at the empty net to ice off the game, took a penalty with a little over 2 minutes to go, then another penalty with 17 seconds left in regulation, but Tampa hangs on to cash my big regulation bet on them tonight on an incredible diving shot block by Eric Cernak on the last shot of the game from Tage Thompson.
Final: Sabres 5, Lightning 6
What. A. Hockey Game. Fantastic from start to finish. This was a best case scenario for me tonight. The Sabres really impressed me tonight and played a fantastic game offensively, making it a lot of fun to watch, while still losing to cash my big bet on the Bolts in regulation. Just such a great game throughout.
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