In Buffalo, the Sabres showed they may not be a fluke this early season. On Monday night, the Tampa Bay Lighting were taken to task in a 5-1 loss to the Sabres.
Buffalo scored three times in the third period to break the game open.
Craig Anderson made 35 saves in the Sabres win.
“That’s the reigning Stanley Cup champs. That’s a great hockey team over there,” Anderson said. “I think our guys showed up ready to play, put the work boots on and tried to frustrate them by outworking them. Any time you win, it’s satisfying. This is a tough league to play in, it’s a tough league to get wins in. Kudos to our guys for putting in the work tonight.”
Alex Killorn scored the Bolts only in the first period.
“We shouldn’t be frustrated. It’s a 1-1 game and I felt we pretty much had the puck all night,” Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. “But you can’t feel good about yourself no matter who you are playing or how the game is. You just take a look at the second goal that was scored and how we played that. We changed the way we played. We changed our mindset. And any time you are going to turn the puck over in the NHL, you are just flirting with fire. And we did that. And obviously, that (second) goal was a killer for us.”
Buffalo’s Victor Olofsson struck for two goals.
Vinnie Hinostroza and Mikhail Sergachev had single markers for the Sabres.
“We don’t really pay attention to what people say,” Hinostroza said. “We know the group we have in here. All hardworking guys, all guys that want to be better than where they’re at in their career. No one’s been satisfied with what they’ve done. I think that goes for the coaches, GM, owners, down to every player on our team. So when you have a group like that that really wants to win and work hard for each other, you can accomplish a lot.”
Robert Hagg and Olofsson scored empty-net goals late in the third period.
Brian Elliott made 20 saves in the loss.
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