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. Tonight, it was the Florida Panthers playing comeback with three unanswered en route to a 4-3 final.
The Sabres opened the scoring in the first period in enemy territory. Victor Olofsson ripped his 18th goal of the season past Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky with one second remaining on a Buffalo powerplay.
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 powerplay goal of his own for the Panthers.
It was the second goal for Giroux since joining Florida as their blockbuster Trade deadline acquisition.
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 2010-11.
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 in off the back of Dustin Tokarski with a delayed penalty looming against the Sabres.
Later in the frame, the Panthers clawed all the way back with another powerplay tally. Former Sabres forward Sam Reinhart did what he does best, and deflected Alexsander 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 three, but then the Panthers went to work inside the final minute. Barkov found 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 docket.
Losi and Gangi Three Stars of the Game:
1.) Sam Bennett - FLA
2.) Claude Giroux - FLA
3.) Sam Reinhart - FLA
What's Next:
The blue and gold stay right here in Florida, and head to Tampa Bay to visit the Lightning on Sunday evening. Puck drop inside Amalie Arena is set for 5 p.m. EST, and the pregame show with Brian Koziol starts at 4 p.m. EST.
