Mittelstadt, Nylander net 1st NHL goals in loss to Lightning

TAMPA - Phil Housley spoke Friday morning about the kind of impression a trip to Amalie Arena might make on Casey Mittelstadt and Alex Nylander. As it turned out, the two young forwards managed to make quite an impression themselves.
Mittelstadt and Nylander both scored their first NHL goals within the first seven minutes of the Buffalo Sabres' 7-5 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday, a game in which the Sabres erased deficits of 1-0, 2-1 and 4-2 before ultimately falling on a pair of third-period goals.

"The good thing is, Casey Mittelstadt scores his first goal," Housley said. "Nylander scores his first goal. Those are great things for these young kids, playing in this building against that team. And the adversity we faced, we found a way to get back in and we kept plugging away, we didn't stop working"
Mittelstadt's power-play goal was Buffalo's answer after Anthony Cirelli opened the scoring on a breakaway just 30 seconds into the contest. Mittelstadt was stationed in the left faceoff circle and utilized a screen from Nicholas Baptiste to send a far-side shot past Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The goal was Mittelstadt's fourth point in five NHL games.

"It's just a bit of relief to get the monkey off your back and now your kind of free to go," he said. "For me it was definitely big, and it will help heading into tomorrow."
Nikita Kucherov scored for Tampa Bay shortly thereafter, but this time Buffalo found its answer in Nylander. Housley had credited Nylander's recent success in the AHL to his willingness to go to the net, so it was only fitting that the goal came on a deflection of a Brendan Guhle shot from the point.
Nylander said he thought to get to the net as soon as Guhle received the puck, hoping he could capitalize on a rebound. Instead, he made contact with the puck as it traveled through the slot.

"It's of course a dream come true," he said. "It's your dream when you were younger, and it was a little surreal moment. Just nice that it went in."
Per Elias Sports Bureau, Mittelstadt and Nylander became the first Sabres to score their first goals in the same game since Curtis Brown and Wayne Primeau accomplished the feat on May 3, 1995, before either player was born.
"I was joking around that the young kids like the Florida weather," said forward Evan Rodrigues, who assisted on Mittelstadt's goal.
The Lightning built a 4-2 lead on the strength of goals from Yanni Gourde and Dan Girardi, the latter of which came just 1:04 into the second period. It took a four-minute penalty kill for the Sabres to turn things around.
Marco Scandella was the culprit of the double-minor, which he received for roughing after he took exception to a hit that Gourde had delivered on Kyle Okposo. The Sabres killed off the long power play which, combined with seeing Scandella defend a teammate, proved to be the spark they needed.
"I think that started it and then the kill kind of carried it over," Mittelstadt said of Scandella. "It was a big four minutes for us."
Buffalo scored three-straight goals in a span of 9:46 in the second period to transform the two-goal deficit into a one-goal lead. Jason Pominville netted a shot from the point through traffic, Jordan Nolan banked the puck in off Vasilevskiy on a wrap-around and Okposo sniped a wrister on the power play.

The Lightning, vying for an Atlantic Division title, outshot the Sabres 16-7 in the third period and reclaimed the lead on goals from Cirelli and Brayden Point, which came just 47 seconds apart.
The Sabres had chances to tie the game again, the best of which came on a shot by Rodrigues that rung the post. The Lightning capped the scoring on an empty-net goal by Victor Hedman, which sailed over Guhle's outstretched arm at the Tampa blue line and into net with 1:26 remaining.
The Sabres have just one game remaining, in Florida on Saturday, and the milestones for the young players didn't quell the disappointment of the players following a third-straight loss.
The goals did, however, serve as a promising sign of things to come.
"I thought those guys played good," Housley said. "Alex, he had a couple tough shifts in the third period, but you can live with the effort. The bottom line is the guys played really hard.
"It's unfortunate because you would have liked to win that game, not just because the guys scored their first goals but just the way we responded in certain situations throughout the game."

Up next

The Sabres conclude their season against the Florida Panthers at BB&T Center on Saturday. Coverage on MSG-B begins at 6:30 p.m., or you can listen live on WGR 550. Puck drop is scheduled for 7.