At The Final Horn | Sabres unable to withstand Panthers comeback

The Buffalo Sabres led 3-0 and 4-1 on Thursday, but the Florida Panthers wouldn't go away, scoring six answered goals to ultimately hand the Sabres a 7-4 loss at FLA Live Arena.
Vinnie Hinostroza scored twice for Buffalo, and Dylan Cozens and Casey Mittelstadt also tallied.
Hinostroza had his first multi-goal game since he recorded a hat trick on March 14, 2019 when he was with Arizona.
Mittelstadt skated 19:07 in his return to the lineup while scoring his first of the year. He sustained an upper-body injury in the season opener and was forced to miss the past 21 games.
Kyle Okposo recorded an assist to extend his point streak to five games (2+4).
Sabres goaltender Aaron Dell made 38 saves on 43 shots.
Aaron Ekblad and Anton Lundell each scored twice for Florida. The Panthers also received goals from Lucas Carlsson, Sam Reinhart and Jonathan Huberdeau.
Sergei Bobrovsky started for Florida and made eight saves on 12 shots. After Buffalo's fourth goal in the second period, Spencer Knight replaced Bobrovsky in net. Knight stopped all 19 shots he faced in 28:35 of action.

Buffalo's power play was 0-for-3 while the penalty kill was 2-for-3.

How it happened

Dell was strong between the pipes to help Buffalo kill off an early penalty. The Sabres opened the scoring soon after when Hinostroza fired a shot from the slot to beat Bobrovsky top shelf 3:21 into the game.
Cozens also went high glove when he scored his seventh goal of the year at the 7:41 mark to put Buffalo up 2-0.
With 5:35 left in the opening period, Cozens found Hinostroza for a cross-ice one-timer for his second of the night.
The middle frame was just as eventful.
The Panthers got on the board 9:57 into the second period when Carlsson's point shot went in.
Buffalo responded almost immediately when with 8:44 left, Mittelstadt skated in while tangled up with a Panthers defender and scored to make it 4-1.
That goal chased Bobrovsky from the net.
With 7:28 remaining in the second, the Panthers got back within two when Reinhart deflected in Carlsson's shot and then with 4:20 left, Ekblad scored to make it a one-goal game.
The Panthers completed the comeback when Ekblad scored again on the power play just 1:07 into the third.
At the 7:27 mark of the third, Buffalo thought they scored on a Zemgus Girgensons backhand, but Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen desperately deflected the puck out and cleared it from harm's way just before it crossed the goal line.
The Panthers took their first lead of the game 38 seconds later on Lundell's one-timer from the slot.
With 1:23 left, Huberdeau scored on an empty net and Weegar added another in the open cage with 5.0 seconds left to close out the scoring.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Mittelstadt's first goal of the year:

Worthy of a mention

Goaltender Dustin Tokarski entered the NHL's COVID-19 protocol earlier in the day and was unavailable for the game. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was called up from the Rochester Americans to serve as Dell's backup.
The Sabres also made a trade before the game to acquire goaltender Malcolm Subban from the Chicago Blackhawks.

Coming up

The Sabres face the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Saturday. Faceoff is set for 7:30 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550 with pregame coverage on MSG at 7.