TAMPA, Fla. — The Lightning knew how dangerous the Sabres were going into Thursday night’s game, and they are sure of it now. Buffalo defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin scored a short-handed goal 1:41 into overtime to send Tampa Bay to a 6-5 loss at Amalie Arena.
Tampa Bay dropped to 36-17-4 but kept their home point streak alive at 16 games. The Sabres improved to 29-23-4 and 18-8-2 on the road.
“This is the best Sabres team, in my opinion, we faced or I’ve faced in quite some time,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said before the game. “They’re a dynamic team. You give them an inch, they’ll take a mile. I mean, everything about them is trending in the right direction..”
Tage Thompson recorded a hat trick, giving him 39 goals for the season.
The Lightning started out strong, but the Sabres always seemed to have an answer.
Steven Stamkos snapped in the Lighting’s first goal just 2:19 into the game. The Sabres scored three straight to answer. Zemgus Girgensons scored at 11:41 of the first to send the game to the first intermission tied at 1.
Thompson then scored two goals less than three minutes apart to give the Sabres a 3-1 lead. Just as it looked like Buffalo was pulling away, Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman answered with an unassisted goal 16 seconds after Thompson’s second.
The Sabres, fired up about an uncalled penalty on that play, replied with a Jack Quinn goal 49 seconds later to go back up by two.
Brayden Point opened the third with his 34th goal of the season, but once again the Sabres had an answer. Thompson scored his third of the night 30 seconds later. Anthony Cirelli scored at 8:33 to pull the lightning back within a goal. Ross Colton tied it on a power-play goal at 14:54.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 17 of 23 shots in his first start against the Sabres this season. Brian Elliott had played the two previous games against Buffalo, both wins. Sabres goalie Eric Comrie made 36 saves.
Stamkos’ goal was the 507th of his career, tying him with Jean Beliveau for 43rd on the NHL’s all-time list. It came on a pass from Nikita Kucherov, who extended his franchise record with a point in his 19th straight home game. That gave Kucherov a Tampa Bay franchise record third 60-assist season.
The Lightning were without defenseman Zach Bogosian, who the team said was attending to a personal matter. Haydn Fleury was active, and Nick Perbix took Bogosian’s spot in a pairing with Hedman.
