Tonight the Sabres came back home home with a big 4-2 win against the Lightning to get back into a tie with them for first place in the Atlantic Division, in a fantastic game from UPL.
Alex Tuch got the Sabres on the board first with his 30th goal of the year, coming out of the box with the puck after a 4 on 4 ended, putting it inside the post past Vasilevsky to make it 1-0 Buffalo, 5:42 into the game. Huge to score first. Nikita Kucherov tied it up on the power play with 8:15 to go in the first with a quick one timer. The Sabres answered back though with Josh Norris lighting the lamp with 5:56 to go in the first on a quick shot short side off a drop pass from down low by Josh Doan. Very fun first period and I thought the Sabres were the better team, looking probably their best that they have in the last two weeks. Very fast paced hockey with all the penalties slowing it down a bit.
After a great look on one end of the ice for Zach Benson, not long after, Jake Guentzel ripped it home to tie it up at 2, 3:56 into the second with some lousy defense for the Sabres all sitting back waiting for the clear, leaving Tampa’s second best player wide open. Jason Zucker gave the Sabres the lead back with a tip in right in front off a bomb by Bowen Byram to make it 3-2 Buffalo with 12:22 left in the second period. Another solid period of hockey for the Buffalo Sabres.
The Sabres held off the Bolts and with 1:54 left, Jack Quinn put the puck in the empty net to go up 4-2, capping off the win to tie Tampa at the top of the Atlantic Division once again!
FINAL: Sabres 4, Lightning 2
Fantastic win for the Sabres to get out of this mini slump with a big win at home against the Bolts. Ukko Pekka Luukkonen was fantastic in goal, as we outshot the Lightning 29-25 and had 17 scoring chances to Tampa’s 13. Big two points. That puts us back in the driver’s seat for home ice in the first round, back to two points ahead of the Habs. Now let’s get rolling these next few games and win the division.
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A Town's Zone 