After going into the third period with a one-goal lead, the Tampa Bay Lightning surrendered the tying goal with 8:27 remaining in regulation before Rasmus Dahlin scored the game-winning goal in overtime to earn a 4-3 win for the Buffalo Sabres.
The Bolts opened the scoring 8:12 into the first period when Brayden Point lit the lamp on the power play for his 31st goal of the season.
After Nikita Kucherov drew a hooking penalty on Jordan Greenway, Tampa Bay’s All-Star winger sent a pass to the slot that went off the stick of a Sabres defender and right to Point, who made a beautiful move to the forehand and beat Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen with Victor Hedman picking up the secondary helper.
Buffalo evened the score 2:47 later after a turnover in the Lightning zone ended up right on the stick of Alex Tuch, who quickly fired a shot past Andrei Vasilevskiy for his 17th goal of the season and sent the game to the first intermission in a 1-1 tie.
With 2:42 remaining in the second period, Mitchell Chaffee scored his third goal of the season to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead heading into the third period. Positioning himself right at the top of the crease, Chaffee redirected a shot from the point from Erik Cernak with Anthony Cirelli recording the secondary assist.
After Point was whistled for a high-sticking penalty at the 10:21 mark of the third period, TageThompson got the equalizer for the Sabres with 8:27 remaining in regulation.
Taking a pass from Rasmus Dahlin, Thompson skated over the Lightning blue line and ripped a shot from the top of the left circle that beat Vasilevskiy over the blocker to make it a 2-2 game.
Following a hooking call on Kucherov at the 1:16 mark of overtime, Buffalo earned a 4-on-3 advantage and capitalized 26 seconds later when Dahlin snuck to the back door and finished off a pass from Casey Mittelstadt to cap off the 4-3 win for the Sabres.
Vasilevskiy made 20 saves on 23 shots against in the defeat. The Bolts fell to 32-34-6 on the season and have now lost four straight games on home ice for the first time since the 2013-14 season.
Bolts by the Numbers
Nikita Kucherov picked up his 66th assist of the season with the primary assist on Brayden Point’s game-opening goal. Kucherov is up to an NHL-best 104 points on the season and extended his point streak to five games with the helper (2-8—10).
Brayden Point scored his team-leading sixth game-opening goal of the season and extended his season-long point streak to eight games (6-4— 10). Point is up to 64 points this season (31-33—64) and has scored 10 goals over his last 15 games (10-6—16).
Victor Hedman recorded his 50th assist of the season with the secondary helper on Brayden Point’s goal and became the fourth active defenseman to log at least three 50-assist seasons, joining Erik Karlsson (6x), John Carlson (4x) and Quinn Hughes (3x). Up to 60 points on the season, Hedman (10-50—60) became the fourth active defenseman with at least four 60-point seasons, joining Karlsson (7x), Brent Burns (6x) and Carlson (4x).
Mitchell Chaffee scored his third goal of the campaign and has picked up four points over his first 14 games with the Lightning (3-1—4).
Erik Cernak recorded the primary helper on Mitchell Chaffee’s goal and also blocked three shots, giving him 473 on his career and moving him past Matt Carle to take sole possession of the fourth-most blocked shots in Lightning franchise history.
Anthony Cirelli recorded the secondary assist on Mitchell Chaffee’s goal and is up to 32 points on the year (12-20—32). Cirelli has found the scoresheet in nine of his last 15 contests (2-9—11).
Bolts Quotes
Mitchell Chaffee: “We had a lot of chances. I think you just don’t get some of those bounces some nights and it kind of felt like that was one of those nights.”
Brayden Point: “I took a penalty there, kind of an unfortunate one. The guy’s behind me, but it’s still a high stick, and then they score on it and then we get the chance to come back with a power play of our own and then we don’t execute, so that part hurts for sure.”
Jon Cooper: “Special teams became a factor because we got a power play as well and we didn’t do anything with it. Fortunately, we killed off theirs, but now we’ve taken two in the last 10 minutes. And then we take another one in overtime and so clearly it sucked some of the momentum out of us. But if you want to win the game, you have to kill them off.”
Krenner’s Three Stars
1. Rasmus Dahlin
2. Mitchell Chaffee
3. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Lightning Look Ahead
- Saturday, March 2 vs. Montreal Canadiens, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena
- Thursday, March 7 vs. Calgary Flames, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena
- Saturday, March 9 vs. Philadelphia Flyers, 7 p.m. ET, AMALIE Arena
