Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (WGR Sports Radio 550) - No rest for the weary on Saturday, as the Buffalo Sabres play their third game in four nights when they face the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Buffalo has had a perfect start to the first road trip back from the Olympics, beating the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday and the Florida Panthers on Friday.
Friday started with goaltending, as Alex Lyon made plenty of good saves, especially while the score was 1-0, Buffalo, or 1-1, which it was until Beck Malenstyn scored at the 11:38 mark of the third period.
Lyon has three wins against his former team this season, helping life Buffalo to a season-series win over their Atlantic Division rival.
This team is so much different from what we’ve seen for the past 14 years. A 1-1 hockey game in the third period doesn’t bother them. They play with confidence, and not the panic we have been so used to seeing in the past.
Malenstyn’s goal was another example of a defenseman in front of the net, with a forward at the point shooting. Malenstyn came off the bench and was flying, which allowed him the get a lot behind his shot.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice foolishly challenged the goal, saying Mattias Samuelsson made contact with Daniil Tarasov's glove.
There was slight contact, but Tarasov’s glove was in front of the crease, not in the crease. That failed challenge put the Panthers shorthanded for two minutes, and gave them less time to try to tie the game at 2-2.
They killed the penalty, but there was only 6:22 left on the clock in regulation time.
Lyon finished the game’s second star with 27 saves. He has now won nine-straight road games. The NHL record is 11 games, which is held by former San Jose Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov and former Minnesota Wild netminder Devan Dubnyk.
Nabokov had a separate streak of 10-straight wins on the road.
Overall, Lyon is 12-2-0 in his last 14 games.
Peyton Krebs looked like he had put the game away with an empty-netter, giving him six goals and six assists for 12 points in his last 13 games.
However, Florida scored with Tarasov pulled when Rasmus Dahlin accidentally put the puck into his own net. But the Sabres then successfully killed off the final 35 seconds for the win.
The Sabres took a 1-0 lead late in the first period when Alex Tuch scored on the power play. Buffalo has scored with the extra man in seven out of the last eight games.
The Sabres were a little bit lucky, because in the first 40 minutes of the game, the team passed up more Grade-A scoring chances on outnumbered rushes than I remember seeing all season. They acted like they were going to pass the puck into the net.
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff let them know about it in the second intermission, and the message was received, as the team started shooting in those spots.
Tage Thompson assisted on Krebs' empty-netter, giving him points in six-straight games and 10 out of 11. In his last 31 games, Thompson has 19 goals and 21 assists for 40 points.
Related
Looking ahead to Saturday, Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov has 61 points in the 28 games he played in that time period. He’s the NHL’s second-leading scorer with 31 goals and 64 assists for 95 points in 53 games.
Saturday’s game features the NHL’s two hottest teams since Dec. 9.
Buffalo is 23-5-2, while Tampa Bay is 22-4-2. When it comes to points percentage, the Lightning are first in that time period at .821 to the Sabres' .800, while Buffalo is first in points with 48 points to 46.
For the season, Tampa Bay is the second-best team in the NHL with a points percentage of .702. Buffalo is eighth at .627, but the Sabres are sixth in points.
The Sabres enter the game third in the Atlantic Division with a points percentage of .627. The Montreal Canadiens are second at .629. The Lightning hold two games in-hand on the Sabres, but if Buffalo can win in regulation, they’ll pull to within four points of the first place Lightning.
Andrei Vasilevskiy has been 17-0-1 in his last 18 games, which includes a 4-3 overtime win over the Sabres on Feb. 3. That was a game the Sabres led 3-2 late until Tampa Bay pulled their Vasilevskiy and tied the game with 26 seconds left.
Jake Guentzel then proceeded to win it with an overtime breakaway goal.
The Lightning came out of break and lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-4, to break their six-game winning streak.
Join Brian Koziol and myself at 6 p.m. for pregame coverage on WGR when you’ll hear from Lindy Ruff, Josh Doan and Malenstyn.