In Stockholm, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Curtis McElhinney made 40 saves and the Bolts defeated the Buffalo Sabres for the second straight night, this time, 5-3.
Swedish native, Victor Hedman scored a power play goal in the win.
“This has been an unbelievable experience for me and my teammates,” Hedman said. “But for me, coming home, to finish it off with two wins, it’s been tremendous. Just super happy about this week.
“Sweden means obviously the world to me, and to be able to come home, play for my team in my home country, that’s probably something I won’t experience again. So I’ll cherish this moment forever.”
Sam Reinhart had a goal for the Sabres who have dropped five straight.
“We asked for a different game. We wanted a stronger compete, and we felt that we had it,” Buffalo coach Ralph Krueger said. “There were stretches of the game today where we were very close to where we want to be as a team and how we want to play, and specialty teams did decide the game again today. Our power play let us down, as did our [penalty kill] this weekend.”
Jack Eichel and Victor Olofsson also scored for Buffalo.
“It’s frustrating. That’s the bottom line; it’s frustrating,” Eichel said. “I thought we did a lot of good things, it just seemed like at the timely moment when we needed a goal, we weren’t able to find one.”
Pat Maroon had two strikes for the Lightning.
“We all kind of play the same way, we find a way to get pucks,” Maroon said. “We find ways to use the back of the net, we’re creative in a way that we are good at protecting pucks and not forcing plays, and we know how to attack to the net, and we know how to go high-to-low. We all love crashing the net.”
Yanni Gourde and Mathieu Joseph also scored for the Bolts.
“That just sums up what kind of player I am. It is what it is. I think you find luck and I never had luck with the empty net. I always find a way to miss them so that just sums it up for me. It’s a good chuckle for me, Maroon said after just missing a hat trick in the game.
[WATCH: All Sabres vs. Lightning highlights]
Carter Hutton made 35 saves in the loss.
“They (Maroon, Paquette and Gourde) were a sign of the depth Tampa Bay has. If the top guys aren’t firing on all cylinders, they have others to carry the load too,” Krueger said. ” It’s something that we are going to continue to work on too. Compliment to them, I thought what they did and their power play were the difference makers.
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