Tonight the Sabres went on the road in the second half of a back to back to dominate the Lightning early with a five goal first period on their way to a huge 6-2 win in the Atlantic Division.
Rasmus Dahlin opened the scoring in transition, cutting to the middle of the ice and ripping it to make it 1-0 Sabres 5:29 into the game. Pretty quickly Josh Norris made it 2-0 on some nice transition just 6:15 in. Solid start to the game! Norris got his second of the game to make it 3-0 on just the Sabres fourth shot of the game, with 11:42 left in the first with it going off a Tampa defenseman and into the net. TNT added to the lead going to the crease and sliding it past Vasy to make it 5-0 with 4:54 to go in the second
Vasilevskiy’s night ended early, just 1:54 into the second period as Zach Metsa made a beautiful move getting to the middle of the nice and making a perfect shot to put the Sabres up 5-0 early. Dominic James got the Lightning on the board with 3:57 left in the second period, making it 5-1 as Tampa capitalized on a Sabres turnover in their own zone and getting to the front of the net for a beautiful opportunity. Another solid period for Buffalo.
In the third, the Lightning made it 5-2 with Oliver Bjorkstrand tipping in the puck as he fell down 2:02 into the period. Alex Tuch got the four goal lead back with 16:17 left on the power play, shooting it up high from the slot, placing it right under the glove of Johansson to put the Sabres up 6-1. That was determined not to be a goal though, wiped off the board. Victor Hedman answered right back, ripping it from the point on a snapshot, top shelf on UPL to make it 6-2. What a win!
FINAL: Sabres 6, Lightning 2
What a huge game. That puts the Sabres alone in second place in the Atlantic, just four points back from the Lightning for first place in the division. The Sabres dominated tonight, from the beginning of the game, putting up a huge lead early and rolling on from them. What a great game across the board for Buffalo. That extends us to a three game win streak out of the break, playing great hockey. UPL was great in goal and obviously the offense shined. Not often that you see Vasilevskiy get chased 22 minutes into a game. I thought we were losing tonight but what a fucking win. This team’s a wagon.
I cannot wait to go to the game on Tuesday for our first home game back from the Olympics break against Vegas with Eichel back in town for the first time with the Sabres actually being a competitive, solid team. It’ll be such a blast of a game, and the pregame ceremony for Tage winning gold I think will be sick with Jack and Hanifan in town too after Jack Hughes pulled Tage on the ice for the Devils ceremony on Wednesday. Should be awesome.
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A Town's Zone 