Dahlin, Sabres rally for OT victory against Lightning

TAMPA -- Rasmus Dahlin scored at 1:42 of overtime, and the Buffalo Sabres rallied for a 3-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

"It wasn't pretty, but we've got some individual skill and talent in this group," Dahlin said. "We knew coming into this game that it was really important. I'm just happy we won."

Dahlin, who also had an assist, scored during a 4-on-3 power play on a backdoor pass from Casey Mittelstadt following a hooking penalty on Nikita Kucherov.

"Honestly I wanted to get it to [Tage Thompson], but I think everyone has seen him shoot, so they were trying to take that away," Mittelstadt said. "It felt like Rasmus was pretty open and he fought through traffic and did a good job putting it away."

The goal came after Thompson tied it 2-2 at 11:33 of the third period on the power play off a shot from the left circle.

Alex Tuch scored for the Sabres (28-28-4), who have won four of their past five games. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 21 saves.

"I felt like it's been coming and some nights they're not going in for you. Tonight we got rewarded," Thompson said. "Every win matters. Obviously, the last game (a 3-2 loss to the Florida Panthers on Tuesday) didn’t end the way we wanted. I felt like we deserved a better outcome, but tonight we were on the right side of things."

Brayden Point and Mitchell Chaffee scored for the Lightning (32-24-6), who have lost two in a row. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves.

"I thought we played pretty well until we took the penalties in the end," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "Tip your hat, their goaltender played pretty well. He made some 10-bell saves when we probably could have put this game a little bit out of reach. He kept them in it, and they kept plugging away."

Lightning forward Brandon Hagel had his point streak end at 14 games (21 points; nine goals, 12 assists).

Point gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead on the power play at 8:12 of the first period after he made a strong move to the net past Sabres defenseman Connor Clifton and beat Luukkonen with the forehand. He extended his point streak to eight games (10 points; six goals, four assists).

"We need the points, so it's tough to lose the points," Point said. "I think we carried a lot of the play tonight. We did a lot of good things. Then we took a penalty and they scored on it, and took one in OT and they scored on it."

Tuch tied it 1-1 at 10:59 after he intercepted a pass in the zone and beat Vasilevskiy with a whiparound shot from the high slot.

Chaffee put the Lightning back ahead 2-1 at 17:18 of the second period with a redirection in front off a shot by Erik Cernak.

"I thought we were forechecking well, we had a lot of chances," Chaffee said. "I think you just don't get some of those bounces some nights and it kind of felt like this was one of those nights."

NOTES: In his 59th game, Dahlin became the second Sabres defenseman to have consecutive 15-goal seasons. He joins Phil Housley, who did it for eight straight seasons from 1982-1990. Dahlin scored 15 goals in 78 games last season. ... Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman had an assist to give him his third 50-assist NHL season and fourth 60-point season. ... Kucherov had an assist on Point's goal and has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) during a five-game point streak. ... Hagel's point streak was tied for the second-longest in Lightning history. Steven Stamkos had an 18-game point streak in 2009-10.