In the most electric game of the season to take first place in the Atlantic Division, the Sabres crumbed away a 4-1 lead, but found a way to come back and erase a 7-5 deficit to beat the Lightning 8-7 at home in a hard hitting, physical, high scoring game with a playoff atmosphere and feel.
The Sabres got on the board first with a nice play by Josh Doan walking in from down low and elevating the puck over Johansson and put Buffalo up 1-0, 8:26 into the game. Very nice goal. Longggg first period with a ton of fighting, lot of physicality, and a bunch of penalties. Big to have the lead after that opening period.
The second period opened with Michael Kesselring and Erik Cernak dropping the gloves, and immediately after Beck Malenstyn dropping em with the worm. What a huge game though. 2:15 into the period on the power play, Jason Zucker fired it home to make it 2-0 Sabres with what looked like one too many passes, but worked great. TNT added to the lead, with some beautiful passing by the Sabres and Tage sniping it top right to give Buffalo a 3-0 lead, again on the power play, 5:10 into the second. Corey Perry got the Bolts on the board with 12:05 left in the second from a nice pass by Kucherov, cashing my Tage/Kuch parlay early. With 8:54 to go in the second, Alex Tuch got away on a breakaway shorthanded to make it 4-1. The Lightning got it back on the same power play 1:20 later, with a Kucherov fanned shot deflecting off Tuch’s skate in the crease and past UPL. Former Sabre Zemgus Girgensons had a beautiful shot through traffic to make it 4-3 with 5:14 left in the second. With a little delay and then shot from the slot after a Sabres turnover in our own zone, JJ Moser knotted the game, beating UPL short side with 2:23 left. Not a great period for the Sabres giving up the 3-0 and 4-1 leads.
Nikita Kucherov gave Tampa their first lead of the game 59 seconds into the third for his second of the game. Not great. The Bolts got the two goal lead with 14:14 left in regulation with Bjorkstand going past the net, UPL chasing him, and dropping the puck back through the crease for an easy tip in for Brayden Point into the empty net. The newest Sabre, Sam Carrick answered right back with a quick shot in transition, 26 seconds later to get us back within one. Former Sabres draft pick Brandon Hagel got Tampa the two goal lead back with 10:12 back, on a quick shot off a rebound with UPL getting too out of position to reset and make the save. Rasmus Dahlin made a beautiful move the high traffic, going back hand, forehand, to get us back within one with 8:57 left in the third, for a huge goal to make it 6-5. Jason Zucker went off to the races in transition and tied it up with a HUGE goal with 5:31 left in the third. On a rebound off a post shot from Rasmus Dahlin, Josh Doan tapped it in to put the Sabres up 8-7 with 4:17 left in regulation. We held off Tampa late, and got the win.
FINAL: Sabres 8, Lightning 7
What a fucking game. We’re a wagon. Such an electric game to watch between two phenomenal teams, and so huge to take first place alone in the Atlantic with this win, our seventh in a row. It wasn’t great how we crumbled away, but showed even more fight that we were able to come back from a 7-5 deficit against a really good team to get the win, especially inside of regulation. And the physicality felt like a hard hitting playoff game with over 100 minutes of penalties tonight. My only knock on the Sabres tonight was I thought UPL was bad in goal, but other than that, fantastic, gutsy win. This team’s the real fucking deal. Can’t wait to see Tampa in the second round.
Let’s Go Buffalo!!!
FIRST PLACE IN THE ATLANTIC!
WAGON!
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