Sabres' Four Power-Play Goals Sink Preds

The Buffalo Sabres converted on the power play four different times and Sam Reinhart recorded a hat trick as the Nashville Predators fell, 7-4, to the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena.
The loss ends Nashville's two-game winning streak, and coupled with other action in the League on Saturday, the Predators will have to wait for their potential Central Division and conference-clinching scenarios.

Nashville held a 4-3 lead late in the second period when Scott Hartnell hit rookie Victor Antipin behind the Sabres' net. Antipin immediately fell to the ice following the collision and needed a stretcher to exit the playing surface. Hartnell was given a boarding major and game misconduct at 14:09 of the second and the Sabres scored three goals on the subsequent man advantage to take a 6-4 lead into the second intermission.
"It was on the forecheck. I saw the guy reverse the puck. I just tried to rub him out. I think his chin hit the glass," Hartnell said. "You see the guy laying there - your stomach gets all turned upside down. You see the stretcher and all that kind of stuff and it made it feel worse, so, it was an unfortunate play and I hope Victor's all right."

Although the three power-play goals in four minutes gave the Sabres their first and only lead of the night, Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette said problems were present in his team's game prior to the game-defining five minutes.
"It was average at best," Laviolette said. "The 5-on-5 play I thought was OK. OK, a lot of nights, doesn't win. We were able to have a lead, but I don't think [we out-chanced] them or outplayed them at that point, 5-on-5. At the end of the day, you go to the penalty box as much as we did, we'll lose the game. It cost us tonight."
"They took it to us from start to finish," Predators winger Austin Watson said. "They played like a team with nothing to lose. They are well coached. I'm sure [Buffalo Head Coach Phil Housley] had them fired up over there to come in here and play a good game and we didn't match it."

Nashville had a 3-1 lead early in the second period, courtesy of goals from P.K. Subban - who set a career-high with his 16th tally of the season - Watson and Kyle Turris, but Ryan O'Reilly scored the first of four power-play goals in the middle frame to pull Buffalo to within one.
Two of Buffalo's three goals on the major power play came from Reinhart, and he finished off the hat trick in the third as Juuse Saros came in to relieve Pekka Rinne.

The Predators will now have little time to regroup as they have a date with the Lightning tomorrow evening in Tampa Bay, a test against one of the League's best.
"We have to address it," Josi said of the result. "It's a quick turnaround with tomorrow's game, but we'll definitely address this. We're a pretty honest group and we know that wasn't good enough."
"It's a huge game tomorrow," Watson said. "Everybody knows that. It's a great opportunity for us to bounce back. I don't know how much we will look at this or whether we will just look to Tampa - that's up to the coaching staff. We will do what we have to do to get our minds right and get away from that hockey game and get back to playing Predators hockey because that wasn't it."

Notes:
Saturday night's contest marked the 1,100th career game for Preds forward Mike Fisher.
Preds forward Eeli Tolvanen made his NHL debut on Saturday night, finishing with one hit in 13:34 of ice time.
Nashville will now jet off to Tampa Bay to begin their final road trip of the season. They'll face the Lightning on Sunday (at 5 p.m. CT) before heading across the state to take on the Panthers on Tuesday. The Preds will then head to Washington for their second to last game of the season for a meeting with the Capitals on Thursday (now televised on NBCSN) before returning home for the season finale next Saturday against Columbus.