Perbix scores first NHL goal to lift Lightning past Sabres

TAMPA -- Nick Perbix broke a third-period tie with his first NHL goal, and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Buffalo Sabres 5-3 at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

Nikita Kucherov had a goal and three assists, and Brandon Hagel had a goal and two assists for the Lightning (7-4-1), who are 4-0-1 in their past five games. Brian Elliott made 21 saves.
"I really like the result and for a large part of the game I like the things we did," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "The problem was when we gave up a chance ... too many Grade-A chances in the slot. We really needed 'Moose' (Elliott) tonight."
Zemgus Girgensons, Casey Mittelstadt and Jeff Skinner scored, and Owen Power had two assists for the Sabres (7-5-0), who were coming off a 5-3 loss at the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday. Eric Comrie made 25 saves.
"The effort was great, we had a chance to win the game and had a chance to pull ahead in the game," Buffalo coach Don Granato said. "Just making little mistakes. We lost that game because of a difference in experience, not skill."

Perbix gave the Lightning a 4-3 lead at 15:05 after Kucherov skated into the slot and made a drop pass to the defenseman. It was Perbix's ninth NHL game.
"Pretty surreal honestly," Perbix said of his goal. "It's something you always dream of and for it to be a game-winner makes it that much sweeter. I just hopped on the ice, saw we had a rush and tried to make the most of it."
Kucherov scored into an empty net at 19:02 for the 5-3 final, extending his goal streak to six games. He also has a 10-game point streak (19 points; six goals, 13 assists).
"He's a magician out there, so you never know what he's going to do," Hagel said. "He's such a skilled player that you have to be ready at all times."

Nicholas Paul gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 7:07 of the first period from the left face-off circle.
Girgensons tied it 1-1 at 16:24 from the low slot after Lightning defenseman Haydn Fleury failed to recover a loose puck.
Brayden Point put the Lightning ahead 2-1 on the power play at 5:05 of the second period on a give-and-go with Steven Stamkos.
Mittlestadt tied it 2-2 on the power play at 8:34 when he redirected a shot from Power.
Skinner gave Buffalo a 3-2 lead at 4:25 of the third when he took a pass from Alex Tuch at the side of the net and scored around Elliott.
"We had chances I think," Skinner said. "… We played well and there's some good things we can take from it. Obviously we didn't get the result and that's what matters."
Hagel tied it 3-3 at 7:40.
"We saw how many chances we were getting and props to their goalie for making some incredible saves," Hagel said. "But we stuck with it and at the end of the day we came up with the two points."
Comrie said, "We deserved to get at least a point tonight. My main focus is getting that point and we didn't get it tonight. We have to move forward."

NOTES: Kucherov set a Lightning record with his 20th four-point game. ... Tampa Bay is 9-0-1 against Buffalo in the past 10 games between the teams at Amalie Arena. ... Power had two assists and played an NHL career-high 28:14. ... Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin was scratched with an upper-body injury and is day to day. ... Buffalo defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin was minus-2 with seven hits in 22:14 of ice time in his return after missing four games with a lower-body injury.