It was the very definition of a trap game. The Buffalo Sabres came to Amalie Arena as losers of six straight and nine of the last ten including a 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the Lightning. The Bolts were coming off a huge win on the road over the Canadiens to take the Eastern Conference lead and had won six of seven.
For a while, it looked like Tampa Bay were going to fall victim to the lowly Sabres and a hot backup goalie in the first game of the new year. But, Steven Stamkos would come to the rescue and lead the Lightning to a 2-1 win.
The Bolts had the only goal of the first period when Cedric Paquette forced a turnover that Ryan Callahan took to the net. Valtteri Filppula found the rebound and put it past Buffalo netminder Michal Neuvirth at 3:51 for his eighth goal of the season.
The Lightning had a few chances on two power plays but came up empty. Shots were even at eight.
Tampa Bay started the second period with the power play, but it was the Sabres who scored a shorthanded goal as Cody McCormick beat Ben Bishop for his first goal of the year. Patrick Kaleta had the assist. McCormick was left all alone in the slot because of a sloppy line change by the Lightning.
The rest of the period looked like Tampa Bay was on a power play.
Tampa Bay absolutely dominated Buffalo in the second period. They had 15 scoring chances in the period, but couldn’t tie the score. Sabres goalie Michal Neuvirth stood on his head in the period saving all of the 26 shots (a Lightning franchise high for a period) that the Lightning fired at him. In fact, the Bolts out-shot the Sabres in the period 26-5 for a two period total difference of 34-13.
Here is Neuvirth’s amazing save on Brett Connolly:
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The third period was much the same as the first 40 minutes with the Bolts dominating play, but Neuvirth doing his best Dominik Hasek impression, including a save on a Paquette breakaway.
Finally Jonathan Drouin found Steven Stamkos on a two-on-one and the Lightning captain deposited his 22nd of the year top shelf to put the Bolts ahead to stay at 14:42. Alex Killorn got the secondary assist on Stamkos’ team leading fourth game winning tally.
The Lightning out-shot the Sabres 47-21.
The Eastern Conference leading Bolts are now 27-12-4 with 58 points and are riding a three game win streak. They’ve won seven of their last eight games.
Radko Gudas (knee surgery), Mark Barberio and J.T. Brown were the scratches.
(Feature Image/Getty Images)
The Lightning travel to Philadelphia to meet the Flyers on Monday night.
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