Sabres recover, defeat Lightning on short-handed OT goal

TAMPA -- Tage Thompson scored his fourth hat trick of the season for the Buffalo Sabres, who recovered for a 6-5 overtime win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

Ilya Lyubushkin won it for Buffalo while short-handed at 1:41 of overtime. He forced a turnover on Steven Stamkos in the defensive zone, skated into the right face-off circle and beat Andrei Vasilevskiy short side for his first goal of the season.
"I just saw a straight line and wanted to go as fast as possible," Lyubushkin said. "I saw I had a little bit of time, not a lot, and I just tried to shoot.
"It feels nice for my team, that's more important than me. We're trying to push for the playoffs right now."

Jeff Skinner and Rasmus Dahlin each had two assists, and Eric Comrie made 36 saves for the Sabres (29-23-4), who have won three of four.
"This is a good game to bring with us because we know we can play against the best and compete night in and night out," Dahlin said. "It was a great win."
Brayden Point had a goal and three assists for the Lightning (36-17-4), who have lost three of four (1-1-2). Vasilevskiy made 17 saves.
"There were a lot of mistakes tonight, and they all wound up in the back of the net," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "I'm not disappointed with the effort. It's the mentality. I give the guys credit for coming back. It takes effort to come back like that."

Thompson completed the hat trick at 6:18 of the third period to put Buffalo ahead 5-3, slipping a backhand five-hole on Vasilevskiy on a breakaway.
"We had to work for it," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "We had to stay very dialed in and focused, and it was good to rise above that challenge. [Comrie] was really good. He didn't feel the pressure and stayed with it."
Anthony Cirelli cut it to 5-4 at 8:33, pushing a loose puck in after Erik Cernak's backhand centering pass redirected behind Comrie off the stick of Dahlin.
Ross Colton tied it 5-5 with a power-play goal at 14:54.
"I thought we pushed well in the third," Cirelli said. "We battled hard and got ourselves back in the game. I thought we showed some pretty good fight to come back and tie it up, but in the end, it wasn't good enough."

Stamkos gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 2:19 of the first period. He skated in on a rush and shot over Comrie's left shoulder from the right circle.
Zemgus Girgensons tied it 1-1 at 11:41 when Dahlin's backdoor pass redirected five-hole off his skate.
Thompson gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead at 9:36 of the second period, finishing a cross-ice pass from Skinner at the right post on a power play. He then made it 3-1 at 12:20 on a breakaway off a stretch pass from Skinner.
"For me, when I'm skating up the ice I'm just trying to get open and find a spot," Thompson said. "It was one of those nights where everything was coming to me."

Victor Hedman responded 16 seconds later to cut it to 3-2, scoring with a slap shot from the left circle that went in off the near post.
Jack Quinn pushed it to 4-2 at 13:25 from the right hash marks.
Point got the Lightning back to within 4-3 at 5:48 of the third period, beating Comrie five-hole with a backhand on a breakaway.
"If we want to play good hockey down the stretch, we've got to figure it out now," Tampa Bay forward Pat Maroon said. "We got it back and got a point, but these teams are crawling for a playoff spot. We're going to get a hot Detroit team (on Saturday) and a Pittsburgh team that's desperate to win hockey games (on Sunday). It's playoff hockey down the stretch. We can't give up four breakaways."
NOTES:Thompson leads the NHL with 22 goals on the road. He has six points (four goals, two assists) during a four-game point streak. ... Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov had an assist to extend his home point streak to 19 games (five goals, 29 assists). ... Skinner has six points (two goals, four assists) during a four-game point streak. ... Tampa Bay defenseman Zach Bogosian was a late healthy scratch.