The Tampa Bay Lightning returned home and picked up a point. Unfortunately, they allowed a late game-tying power play goal to Tage Thompson and an overtime power play goal to Rasmus Dahlin as the Buffalo Sabres came back to win, 3-2. Brayden Point and Mitchell Chaffee had the goals for the Lightning while Andrei Vasilevskiy had 20 saves on 23 shots. Alex Tuch had a goal for the Sabres as well. The big difference in the game was the play of Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who had 21 saves on 23 shots.
The Lightning opened the scoring in the first period with a power play goal, because that’s what he does. A smooth entry into the zone allowed Nikita Kucherov to feed the puck to Point and the center held off his shot until he had Luukkonen out of position and tucked it home for his 31st goal of the season.
Brayden Point (Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman) Power Play, 1-0 Lightning
The lead lasted all of two minutes until Alex Tuch tied it up. It was a nice shot from the slot, but can you guess how it happened?
Was it:
A. A breakaway goal caused by a turnover at the blue line?
B. A rocket off of a face-off win?
C. A turnover when the Lightning had control of the puck in the defensive zone?
D. Vasilevskiy firing it into his own net in frustration after being besieged by shots due to poor defense?
The answer as C.
Alex Tuch (unassisted) 1-1
Honestly, after the Tuch goal, the Lightning did clean things up quite a bit and controlled most of the play for the game. They had a lot of solid looks, especially in the second period, but couldn’t find the go-ahead goal. Victor Hedman had a golden opportunity after a cross-ice pass from Darren Raddysh had the Big Swede looking at an empty net, but his shot fluttered wide. Luukkonen was really good in this frame. He made a nice save on a Tyler Motte rush and then a fantastic save on Steven Stamkos, who let it all hang out on a big shot from the slot.
It looked like the teams might be headed to the third period tied, but a bit of a broken play led to the go-ahead goal for the Bolts. Anthony Cirelli tried to force a pass across the ice that was knocked down. With Buffalo a bit out of position, Erik Cernak stepped in and whacked a shot at the net. Mitchell Chaffee was chilling in front of the net and deflected the puck up and over UPL for his third goal of the season.
Mitchell Chaffee (Erik Cernak, Anthony Cirelli) 2-1 Lightning
With the way the Lightning were controlling their own zone, Buffalo had just 15 scoring chances and 2 high-danger chances through 40 minutes, it felt like they would find a way to pull this off and snap their home losing streak.
If things had stayed at even strength, maybe they would have. With Brayden Point off in the penalty box for a high-stick, the Sabres struck with the extra skater. The Bolts had done a decent job of killing the penalty, but Tage Thompson is a goal-scorer. He might be having a rough year, but he still has smoot hands and he sniped one past Vasilevskiy to tie things at two goals a piece.
Tage Thompson (Rasmus Dahlin) Power Play, 2-2
The teams exchanged power plays late in the game, but the turning point of the game came shortly after Thompson’s goal when Nick Paul had a little space, and beat Luukkonen. The puck just didn’t feel like going in the net as hit pinged off the post. The Bolts also had a scare on their power play as Jordan Greenway stripped Point of the puck and had a breakaway that was denied by Vasilevskiy.
The Lightning had a final flurry at the death, but couldn’t pull this one out in regulation. On to overtime. If your memory serves you, you remember that the last time these teams went to the extra session, way back in October, Dylan Cozens had the game-winner after the Sabres controlled the puck for the entire two minutes before the goal. At least in this overtime session, the Lightning touched the puck. Progress!
Sadly, the Lightning also committed a penalty in overtime and the Sabres took advantage of the numbers and the open ice. Casey Mittlestadt had the puck down low and did a good job of forcing Erik Cernak to make a move, which opened up a seam to slide a pass to Rasmus Dahlin who tapped the puck in on the back door. Just like that it was over.
Rasmus Dahlin (Casey Mittlestadt, Jordan Greenway) Power Play, 3-2 Sabres
