(WGR 550) – Thursday was a huge bounce back game for the Buffalo Sabres, as they walked into Tampa Bay and left with a 6-5 overtime victory over the Lightning.
Raise your hand if you had Ilya Lyubushkin scoring his first goal for the Sabres on an overtime, shorthanded breakaway against one of the NHL’s best goaltenders.
It was a very up-and-down game for goalie Eric Comrie, who allowed five goals on 41 shots. However, he picked up his third-consecutive victory after making four huge power play saves on superstars Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov to preserve the victory.
Twice this season, Jeff Skinner had given the Sabres a third period lead against the Lightning and both times, Buffalo lost.
In the game in Buffalo on Nov. 28 and this game Thursday night, the Sabres squandered a 5-3 lead. The first time, Stamkos beat them in overtime. Despite giving up three third period goals, Buffalo never lost its composure.
Comrie gave up a goal to Stamkos that he would want back to open the scoring, but before the first period was over, Rasmus Dahlin’s shot got past Andrei Vasilevskiy after going off Zemgus Girgensons’ skate.
Buffalo played an excellent second period, because they played as one cohesive group. They were five-man units up the ice on the attack and coming back into their own zone.
Dahlin had made a great body check behind the net to take out Corey Perry, and Nick Paul took the dumbest penalty imaginable, hitting the Sabres defenseman from behind. Dahlin helped make him pay, as he extinguished a rush along the wall and quickly sprung Jeff Skinner on a 3-on-1. Tage Thompson came flying through the right circle, and Skinner made a perfect feed.
Less than three minutes later, it was Skinner, again, hitting Thompson for a breakaway and Buffalo had a two-goal lead.
Victor Hedman took 16 seconds to make it 3-2, but 49 seconds after that, Jack Quinn put a hard shot through Vasilevskiy to make it 4-2 after two periods.
You know Tampa Bay is too good to go away, and Brayden Point got behind JJ Peterka and Jacob Bryson to beat Comrie on the breakaway.
Buffalo’s lead was back to one goal, but Thompson wasn’t done either, as he netted his league-leading fourth hat-trick and career-high 39th goal of the season to make it 5-3.
Right after Ross Colton’s power play goal tied the game at 5-5, cheap shot artist Erik Cernak elbowed Kyle Okposo in the head, and Okposo stayed down for maybe 10 seconds.
It’s the hit the NHL claims it’s trying to eliminate, but the major penalty and game misconduct wasn’t called. It really doesn’t matter if Cernak is suspended by the garage league, because at this point of the season in a tied game, the Sabres needed a five-minute power play more than a suspension.
With just six second left in regulation time, Henri Jokiharju inadvertently directed the puck over the glass and the NHL’s third-best power play was going to get a chance in overtime.
In addition to the four huge saves by Comrie, Mattias Samuelsson had a key blocked shot.
Lyubushkin was already playing his best game as a member of the Sabres. The referee, once again, decided the game when he didn’t call Lyubushkin for hooking down Stamkos to give him the breakaway.
In my mind, it was a makeup call in this garage league for Cernak not getting a penalty.
Lyubushkin actually pulled away from Kucherov who on a play like that, usually isn’t going to give his all anyway and the Russian beat Vasilevskiy to his glove side. This was definitely a game Vasilevskiy will want to forget.
Related
Buffalo raised its record on the road to 15-3-2 in its last 20 games. Tampa Bay is now 14-0-2 in its last 16 home games.
The Sabres had won once in its last 12 games against the Lightning.
If you go by points percentage, the Sabres have the eighth and final spot in the Eastern Conference at .554. Detroit won on Thursday to have seventh place at .561.
As for the rest of the group, the Pittsburgh Penguins are .553, the New York Islanders are .549, the Florida Panthers are .533 and the Washington Capitals are .517.
The Sabres are in Sunrise to play the Panthers on Friday, and then return home to host the Capitals on Sunday.
