It looked like things were headed to another blowout loss to the Buffalo Sabres as the Tampa Bay Lightning trailed 4-1 in the second period. Instead they poured on the offense and eventually led 7-5. Then the home team roared back with three goals in just over four minutes, capped off by Josh Doan’s power play goal, to pick up the 8-7 victory.
Corey Perry scored in his second game with the Bolts while Nikita Kucherov had three points (2 goals, 1 assist) in the loss. From the blue line, J.J. Moser had three points (1 goal, 2 assists) and Darren Raddysh had three assists. Neither goaltender will want to remember this night as Jonas Johansson stopped 34-of-42 shots while Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had a 21-of-28 night in net. Tage Thompson had four assists on the night while Alex Tuch, Jason Zucker, and Doan had two goals each.
Special teams proved to be the difference as the teams combined for 102 minutes. Buffalo went 4-for-7 on the power play while the Bolts were 1-for-2.
First Period:
It was an interesting period, that’s for sure. After the first ten minutes you had to check the schedule and make sure this wasn’t a Lightning/Panthers tilt. At the midway mark, the two teams had combined for 64 penalty minutes. Even from the go, it was a tough start for the penalty keeper as the Lightning were down two skaters with Darren Raddysh and Brandon Hagel heading to the penalty box at the same time just 4:36 into the game.
The Lightning penalty killers were on top of things and limited the Sabres to a handful of chances with none of them getting past Jonas Johansson. Unfortunately they weren’t as lucky a few minutes later with Erik Cernak in the box. Following a clean face-off win in the zone, Josh Doan was able to walk in tight and roofed a shot under the bar on the short side to open the scoring.
Josh Doan [20] (Tage Thompson, Bo Byram) Power Play, 1-0 Sabres
Then the fun began. Well, if you like seeing players stacked into the penalty box. A fight between Scott Sabourin and Sam Carrick was the undercard, and then it was Brandon Hagel vs. Peyton Krebs, Byram and Charle-Edouard D’Astous (who were given unsportsmanlikes and ten-minute misconducts). Just over a minute later, Mattias Samuelsson and Nikita Kucherov were whistled for matching slashing calls.
everyone in the box
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) March 8, 2026 at 6:43 PM
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So, yeah, not a lot of flow in the first half of the period. After Erik Cernak and Michael Kesselring were booked for matching unsportsmanlike penalties, the Lightning picked up a power play toward the end of the period, but were unable to capitalize on it.
In the ten minutes of 5v5 play, Buffalo had a slight edge in terms of play, but unlike their last meeting, the Bolts defense held. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonin wasn’t faced with too many tough shots, the Lightning’s best chance came off of a rebound that Anthony Cirelli slid just wide of the net.
Second Period:
So, with a little bit of a break, things calmed down, right? Nope. Right off of the opening draw, Cernak and Kesselring tried to settle their differences with their fists instead of their words. It wasn’t much of a scrap, but Cernak got two points for a nice arm-drag takedown. Unfortunately, he didn’t return to the game after the fight.
Off of the very next face-off Corey Perry decided he wanted in on the fun and dropped the gloves against Beck Malenstyn. It looked like the cagey veteran was going to earn a draw up until Malenstyn connected with a nice right to end the fight.
While the fighting stopped, the Lightning couldn’t keep from going to the penalty box. A high-stick penalty by Ryan McDonagh led to a Sabres power play that Jason Zucker cashed in with his 18th goal.
Jason Zucker [18] (Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson) Power Play, 2-0 Sabres
The penalties up to this point seemed to have a little bit of calculation to them. The Lightning were, without a doubt, trying to bully the Sabres. Buffalo is a youngish team that hasn’t been in this position for quite awhile. There was a bit of a playoff feel to the game and Tampa Bay was trying to goal them into some retaliatory penalties. For the most part, Buffalo did a good job of not falling for it.
In fact, it ended up being the Lightning, well Brandon Hagel, that let things get to him a little. After Hagel had his stick broken in front of the net, he tried to get Rasmus Dahlin into a fight. The defenseman wasn’t having any of it and tried to skate away. Hagel persisted in his violent demands and eventually started swinging at the back of the head of Dahlin.
Hagel has to let that go at some point. Skate away and chirp Dahlin about not dropping the gloves. Instead, Hagel picked up a double-minor for roughing and the Sabres made them pay when Tuch tipped a shot from Tage Thompson to make it 3-0.
Alex Tuch [26] (Tage Thompson, Noah Ostlund) Power Play, 3-0 Sabres
Tampa Bay killed off the backend of the double-minor and strung a couple of decent shifts together. They finally got on the scoreboard when Nikita Kucherov and Corey Perry worked a nice two-on-one that ended with Perry scoring the goal.
Corey Perry [13] (Nikita Kucherov, Darren Raddysh) 3-1 Sabres
Down 3-1 and starting to put some pressure on Buffalo a power play was just what they needed. To their credit, they scored on it, but unfortunately, Alex Tuch scored a short-handed goal first.
Alex Tuch [27] (Bo Byram) Short-Handed, 4-1 Sabres
Not a great read by Raddysh and Tuch showed why he’s such a valuable player for the Sabres. The Lightning catch a break later in the power play when Kucherov’s shot hit Tuch’s skate and bounced past Luukkonen.
Nikita Kucherov [33] (Darren Raddysh) Power Play, 4-2 Sabres
Part of the Lightning’s recent struggle have come from a lack of depth scoring. Yes, injuries have hurt. As has the 11/7 line-up that mixes the lines up a bit more than the players probably liked. Down by two goals, it would be that depth that brought the Lightning back level.
First it was the reunited Yanni Gourde line that got back to what makes them so effective – forechecking and puck harassment. Gourde found Zemgus Girgensons in the slot and the former Sabre scored his 99th career goal with a nice wrist shot.
Zemgus Girgensons [8] (Yanni Gourde, J.J. Moser), 4-3 Sabres
Tampa Bay goal! Scored by Zemgus Girgensons with 05:14 remaining in the 2nd period. Assisted by Yanni Gourde and J.J. Moser. Buffalo: 4 Tampa Bay: 3 #TBLvsBUF #SabreHood #GoBolts
— NHL Goals (@nhlgoals.bsky.social) March 8, 2026 at 8:05 PM
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Then it was Conor Geekie showing what made him so effective in Syracuse. He used his size and reach to create a turnover. Then he slid a slick little backhand pass between the defender’s legs. J.J. Moser’s first shot didn’t go, but his second shot did. Just like that it was tied.
J.J. Moser [6] (Conor Geekie) 4-4
If nothing else, it was one of the more entertaining periods that the Lightning have played this season.
Third Period
The third period. Well. Here you go. Just watch the goals. So many goals.
Nikita Kucherov [34] (Brandon Hagel, J.J. Moser) 5-4 Lightning
Brayden Point [16] (Unassisted) 6-4 Lightning
Sam Carrick [5] (Zack Benson, Michael Kesselring) 6-5 Lightning
Brandon Hagel [30] (Darren Raddysh, Nikita Kucherov) 7-5 Lightning
Rasmus Dahlin [13] (Tage Thompson, Bo Byram) 7-6 Lightning
Jason Zucker [19] (Ryan McLeod) 7-7
Josh Doan [21] (Jason Zucker, Rasmus Dahlin),8-7 Sabres
Highlights
Pretty Colors
