Girgensons gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 8:57 of the first period. With the Lightning on a line change, Girgensons took a pass from Tyson Jost at the offensive blue line and carried it into the left circle before scoring to the far side.
Skinner made it 2-0 at 15:28 when Owen Power fed him to the right of the net with a pass from just inside the blue line and Skinner lifted the puck under the crossbar.
Hagel cut it to 2-1 at 17:58 of the second period on a one-timer after the puck came out from behind the net and into the slot.
“I just thought we got better and better,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “I never felt that we were in trouble. It's unfortunate we didn't touch the puck in overtime, but they deserved for sure a point, maybe two out of that. You’ve just got to keep plugging away. This league can humble you and you’ve got to have that mental fortitude to fight your way through it. But you're going to look at a lot of what we've done as a group, it's been excellent. We just haven't been able to generate when we've needed to.”
Buffalo defenseman Mattias Samuelsson left the game early in the third with an upper-body injury.
“I expect it [to be] day to day,” Granato said. “I would expect that he should feel better tomorrow, but we'll see. But it doesn't seem like it'll be much more than day to day.”
NOTES: Hagel has nine points (five goals, four assists) in six games against Buffalo, which selected him in the sixth round (No. 159) of the 2016 NHL Draft. … Point’s assist on the tying goal was his 467th NHL point, moving him past Alex Killorn into sole possession of seventh place in Lightning history. Point has 218 goals and 249 assists. … Tampa Bay defenseman Erik Cernak played 17:57 in his 300th NHL game. … The Sabres have won three straight against the Lightning for the first time since defeating them four consecutive times from Oct. 24, 2009, to March 27, 2010.