With a golden chance to salvage a game in the final matchup of the season series, the Buffalo Sabres relinquished 4-1 lead on home ice to the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning at KeyBank Center. The Lightning went on to rack up five unanswered goals from the 13:57 mark of the second period on to down the Sabres 6-4 in front of their home crowd.
There were chances aplenty in the first period, despite the scoresheet reading a 10-3 shot advantage favoring Buffalo. Both the Sabres and the Lightning racked up dangerous opportunity after dangerous opportunity, as the wide-open game constantly tested goaltenders Linus Ullmark and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Vasilevskiy weathered a couple of high-danger scoring chances by Buffalo in particular. The first came off the stick of Sam Reinhart in the early goings of the game as he snuck into the high slot all alone, and the unguarded winger shot the puck right into the pads of the Tampa Bay netminder.
A couple minutes past the halfway point of the period, Jack Eichel and the Sabres were seconds removed from killing off a penalty to defenseman Henri Jokiharju. The captain put some nifty moves on the left boards before springing himself free into the slot after dishing the puck off, but then Eichel's one-time shot lifted high and wide past Vasilevskiy and the Lightning net.
Buffalo finally broke through in the final minute of the opening period as forward Curtis Lazar was able to keep a puck in the Tampa Bay zone and dish it off to Conor Sheary. The second-year Sabres winger wired a shot past Vasilevskiy, giving the blue and gold a much-deserved 1-0 edge.
The Sabres picked up where they left off to start the second period as they extended their lead to 2-0 just 2:12 into the middle frame. This time, it was Marcus Johansson scoring his first goal since Dec. 7 in Vancouver as he corralled a pass from Sheary off the right wing boards and wired a shot past Vasilevskiy.
Tamp Bay got on the scoreboard less than five minutes later on the power play, cutting the Buffalo lead in half at 2-1. Ondrej Palat accepted a pass from Tyler Johnson on the man advantage, and Palat's one-time shot blew past Ullmark for the first Lightning goal.
The Sabres responded well to the Lightning goal as they padded their lead to 4-1 in the ensuing minutes of the second period.
Just 72 seconds after Palat's goal, Jimmy Vesey scored his fifth goal of the campaign from a knee to make it 3-1.
Moments later the Sabres found themselves shorthanded following a fight between Jake McCabe and Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev that saw the Sabres defenseman earning a two-minute instigator penalty along with a 10-minute misconduct.
A little more than a minute into the penalty kill, Eichel put the Sabres up 4-1 as he picked up a loose puck in the defensive end and skated all the way into the Tampa Bay zone as a 2-on-1 developed. The Buffalo captain opted to keep the puck, curl and drag it past Lightning defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, and eventually had a wide-open net with Vasilevskiy down and out of position.
New movie concept: "The Rise of Eichel" --#Sabres50 | @JackEichel15 pic.twitter.com/TiXvchr9It
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) January 1, 2020Tampa Bay did not go down without a fight as the Lightning came back and concocted a two-goal run of their own before the end of the second period. Alex Killorn cut the lead in half at 4-2 on the power play, before Tyler Johnson jetted out on a breakaway to make it 4-3 Sabres with just over three minutes left in the period.
The Lightning found the equalizer 6:20 into the final period of regulation as the Sabres' end started to look like a fire drill trying to get the puck from Tampa Bay. As a result, Shattenkirk was able to sneak into the slot all alone, take a pass from Johnson and fired a shot that deflected off the body of Johansson and floated past Ullmark to make it a 4-4 contest.
The run of unanswered goals for the Lightning reached four less than two minutes later as they snatched their first lead of the night over the Sabres. It was Killorn taking a pass from Patrick Maroon and dumping the fifth goal of the night past Ullmark for the 5-4 Tampa Bay advantage.
Buffalo had their chances down the stretch, but failed to score on either of their third period power plays after losing the lead. For good measure, Anthony Cirelli cashed in on the Sabres' empty net with less than three seconds in the contest, ballooning the final score to 6-4.
GAME SUMMARY
Goal Summary:
First Period:
BUF: 19:03 - Conor Sheary (6) (Curtis Lazar)TBL: NONE
Second Period:
BUF: 2:12 - Marcus Johansson (6) (Conor Sheary, Marco Scandella); 8:12 - Jimmy Vesey (5) (Marcus Johansson, Conor Sheary); 9:56- Jack Eichel (25) SHG (Unassisted)TBL: 7:00 - Ondrej Palat (12) PPG (Tyler Johnson, Mikhail Sergachev); 13:57 - Alex Killorn (14) PPG (Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov); 16:55 - Tyler Johnson (8) (Ondrej Palat, Ryan McDonagh)
Third Period:
BUF: NONETBL: 6:20 - Kevin Shattenkirk (6) (Tyler Johnson, Anthony Cirelli); 8:08 - Alex Killorn (15) (Patrick Maroon, Cedric Paquette); 19:57 - Anthony Cirelli (9) ENG (Alex Killorn, Steven Stamkos)
Penalty Summary:
First Period:
BUF: 10:29 - Henri Jokiharju (Slashing - 2 min.)TBL: 4:03 - Steven Stamkos (Tripping - 2 min.)
Second Period:
BUF: 0:08 - Dalton Smith (Roughing - 2 min.); 3:21 - Kyle Okposo (Slashing - 2 min.); 5:08 - Henri Jokiharju (Tripping - 2 min.); 8:34 - Jake McCabe (Instigator - 2 min.); 8:34 - Jake McCabe (Fighting - 5 min.); 8:34 - Jake McCabe (Instigator: Game Misconduct - 10 min.): 12:59 - Marcus Johansson (Hooking - 2 min.)TBL: 0:08 - Luke Schenn (Roughing - 2 min.); 8:34 - Mikhail Sergachev (Fighting - 5 min.); 11:06 - Tyler Johnson (Interference - 2 min.)
Third Period:
BUF: NONETBL: 12:07 - Mikhail Sergachev (Delay of game - 2 min.); 15:42 - Nikita Kucherov (Cross-checking - 2 min.)
Shots on Goal:
BUF: 28 (10, 9, 9)TBL: 27 (3, 15, 8)
Goalies:
BUF: Linus Ullmark - 21 savesTBL: Andrei Vasilevskiy - 24 saves
Power Plays:
BUF: 0 for 4 (0%)TBL: 2 for 5 (40%)
Three Stars:
- Alex Killorn - TBL
- Conor Sheary - BUF
- Tyler Johnson - TBL
What's Next:
The Sabres kick off the 2020 portion of the schedule with a home matchup against the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday. Puck drop at KeyBank Center is set for 7 p.m. with the Paul William Beltz Pregame Show with Mike Schopp and the Bulldog starting at 6 p.m. on WGR from (716) Food and Sport.
