For the second-straight night, the Buffalo Sabres were unable to secure a victory after holding a multi-goal lead against an Eastern Conference opponent. Friday night saw the Florida Panthers playing comeback with three unanswered goals, en route to a 4-3 win over the Sabres at FLA Live Arena.
The Sabres opened the scoring in the first period, as Victor Olofsson ripped his 18th goal of the season past Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky with one second remaining on a Buffalo power play.
It was Olofsson's 11th goal in the last 19 games after a lengthy dry spell in the middle of the 2021-22 season.
The lead did not last long, though, as minutes later, Claude Giroux scored a power play goal of his own for the Panthers. It was the second goal for Giroux since joining Florida as their blockbuster Trade Deadline acquisition.
However, just 20 seconds later, the Sabres re-claimed their lead as a wild start to the first period continued. Mark Pysyk let a shot go from the point that snuck in behind Bobrovsky for Pysyk's third goal of the year.
Scoring didn't end there, as the Sabres added one more before period's end. A nifty pass from Tage Thompson helped lead to a lethal backhand goal for Jeff Skinner.
Fittingly, Skinner joined Thompson with 30 goals, becoming the first Buffalo Sabres duo to pot 30 goals in the same season since Thomas Vanek and Drew Stafford in the 2010-11 campaign.
Florida cut their deficit in half nine-and-a-half minutes into the middle stanza. From the behind the goal line, veteran forward Patric Hornqvist banked his 11th goal of the season off the back of Dustin Tokarski and in with a delayed penalty looming against the Sabres.
Later in the frame, the Panthers clawed all the way back with another power play tally. Former Sabres forward Sam Reinhart did what he does best, and deflected Aleksander Barkov's shot from the point past Tokarski to make it 3-3.
It looked like the game was destined for overtime with the teams still deadlocked at 3-3, but then the Panthers went to work inside the final minute of regulation.
Barkov was able to find forward Sam Bennett all alone on the left side of Tokarski, and Bennett tapped in the game-winning goal with just 37.3 seconds left on the clock.
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GAME RECAP:
Scoring Summary:
First Period:
BUF: 6:27 - Victor Olofsson (18) PPG (Peyton Krebs); 8:45 - Mark Pysyk (3) (Unassisted); 15:35 - Jeff Skinner (30) (Tage Thompson)
FLA: 8:25 - Claude Giroux (20) PPG (Jonathan Huberdeau, Sam Reinhart)
Second Period:
BUF: NONE
FLA: 9:30 - Patric Hornqvist (11) (Brandon Montour, Eetu Luostarinen); 14:20 - Sam Reinhart (27) PPG (Aleksander Barkov, Claude Giroux)
Third Period:
BUF: NONE
FLA: 19:22 - Sam Bennett (27) (Aleksander Barkov, Brandon Montour)
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Penalty Summary:
First Period:
BUF: 7:50 - Tage Thompson (Tripping - 2 min.)
FLA: 4:28 - Sam Bennett (Hooking - 2 min.)
Second Period:
BUF: 12:45 - Jeff Skinner (Interference - 2 min.)
FLA: 17:57 - Ben Chiarot (Slashing - 2 min.)
Third Period:
BUF: NONE
FLA: 0:50 - Sam Bennett (Cross-checking - 2 min.); 6:06 - Mason Marchment (Tripping - 2 min.); 20:00 - Sam Bennett - Cross-checking - 2 min.)
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Losi and Gangi Three Stars of the Game:
1.) Sam Bennett - FLA
2.) Claude Giroux - FLA
3.) Sam Reinhart - FLA
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What's next:
The Sabres stay in Florida and head to Tampa Bay to visit the Lightning on Sunday. Puck drop at Amalie Arena is set for 5 p.m. ET with pregame coverage on WGR with Brian Koziol starting at 4 p.m. ET.
