It Buffalo, the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning took a 2-0 lead in the first period, and coughed it up to the Sabre, who took a 3-2 lead after that.
The Sabres eventually built a 5-3 lead into the latter stages of the third period, but the Lightning rallied with a goal from Steven Stamkos and Brandon Hagel to force extra time on Monday night.
“There’s going to be games where we don’t deserve the two points and tonight was probably one of those, but we’ve been on the other side of that too,” Stamkos said. “It’s a long year, ebbs and flows, and it usually balances out. But we gave up too many prime scoring chances to some skilled guys and we don’t want to do that and leave our goaltender hanging, but still a character win nonetheless and we’ll certainly take that on the road and move on and try to be better.”
Stamkos then his for his second of the night in extra time to give the Lightning a 6-5 win.
Brian Elliott made 32 saves in the Tampa win.
The Lightning improved to 13-7-1.
“Were we happy with the game as a coaching staff and as a team? No. Are we happy with the win? Yes,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “I’m very happy with the way we got it. You’re going to sit here and say you’re down 5-3 late in the game and you come out and you pull it out in overtime? I think it says something about the guys in there. But it’s a 60-minute game, not a six-minute game. And that’s where we’ve got to be better.”
Tampa took a 2-0 lead in the first on a power play goal from Braden Point, and a strike from Corey Perry.
Buffalo responded with two goals in the fist tie it, 2-2, Tage Thompson and Jack Quinn.
“This learner is huge,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said. “It’s huge. So, you leave this game, that’s going to dominate everything else. And it was every single guy. It was all the way to the overtime goal. I do say all this, and our guys will learn from it. I know they will. I know they are [ticked] off at it. They’ve got to own it, and they will. I know we will. It happened, and you’ve got to make sure you gain the experience of it to the point where you don’t allow it to happen again.”
Tyson Jost scored near the midway point of the second period for a 3-2 lead to the Sabres.
Buffalo dropped to 9-12-1.
Point’s second goal of the game tied it, 3-3, in the 17th minute of the middle frame.
Dylan Cozens and Jeff Skinner scored in the third period to give the Sabres a seemingly comfortable, 5-3, lead.
“I think we played almost a full game, but we just kind of sat back at the end with that two-goal lead and let them push and take over,” Cozens said. “Those are the times we need to just keep pushing for that next goal, don’t sit back, because that’s a good team and once they get the momentum going, they’ll take advantage, and that’s what they did tonight.”
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 19 saves in the Sabres loss.
“They’re a team that knows how to win,” Cozens said. “So, they’re confident that they can turn it on like that in the last few minutes and score at any time. That’s something we need to know, and we need to just keep pushing and not let them get those chances, because they obviously know how to win games.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.