Buffalo Sabres top Lightning in the most improbable fashion
By Sion Fawkes
The Buffalo Sabres didn’t play a perfect game, but man, did Ilya Lyubushkin come up big in this one, scoring shorthanded in a big win!
The Buffalo Sabres nearly had another one slip through their clutches. After leading 5-3 in the third, Buffalo once again let the Tampa Bay Lightning back into the contest, and this game was starting to look eerily similar to their 6-5 OT loss to the Bolts back on November 28th.
Even worse, the officials missed a blatant elbowing call that, given the presence of blood on Kyle Okposo’s lip, would have drawn a double minor. In the game’s final minute, they instead called defenseman Henri Jokiharju with a delay of game minor, and it forced the Sabres to go shorthanded in the first two minutes of the overtime period.
Tampa had plenty of chances to put the Sabres away in the extra frame, and they nearly did early, but the ensuing shot went off the post and Buffalo lived to fight another minute. That next minute was all they needed, as defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin seized control of the puck, got off on a breakaway, and buried it home for his first goal of the season.
Buffalo Sabres played a hard fought, physical game
The Sabres made Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy look like a low-end AHL goaltender in this one. Heading into the contest, Vasilevskiy had a 0.919 save percentage and a 2.53 GAA. But Buffalo only needed 23 shots on net to put up six goals on one of the game’s better goaltenders, with Tage Thompson, one of the league’s premier centers, might I add, sinking three for yet another hat trick.
The Blue and Gold are not known as a physical team, but they landed several bone-crunching hits in this one – 42 total. Peyton Krebs and Rasmus Dahlin led the way, finishing six checks apiece, while Zemgus Girgensons logged five and Lyubushkin, four.
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No, it wasn’t the cleanest win, and the Sabres still need to learn how to play all 60 minutes, as their third period was nothing but trouble. But a win is a win, especially when it comes against one of the NHL’s best teams.
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