The Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres combined to split 10 goals in the opening 40 minutes on Thursday before the newest Bolts made their presence felt to help Tampa Bay to a 6-5 victory at AMALIE Arena.
Forward Oliver Bjorkstrand scored the game-winning goal in his Tampa Bay Lightning debut, burying a rebound after a chance for Yanni Gourde, who made his return to the Lightning locker room after being acquired from Seattle in the same trade as Bjorkstrand on Wednesday.
Lightning forward Jake Guentzel scored a hat-trick in the second period to help Tampa Bay tie the game and led the team in scoring with three points.
The Lightning improved to 37-21-4 with the win.
Tampa Bay hosts the Boston Bruins at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Scoring summary
First period
TBL 1, BUF 0
5:01 Nick Paul (19) - Ryan McDonagh, Brandon Hagel
Forward Nick Paul opened the scoring on Thursday when his passing attempt bounced off a Sabres player in front of the net and slid by Buffalo goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
TBL 1, BUF 1
5:17 Rasmus Dahlin (11) - Ryan McLeod, Zach Benson
Buffalo tied the game 16 seconds after the Paul goal. Defenseman Rasmus Dahlin entered the zone and scored on his shot into the bottom right corner.
TBL 2, BUF 1
5:53 Darren Raddysh (2) - Zemgus Girgensons
A Darren Raddysh point shot marked the third goal in a minute and a 2-1 advantage for the home team. Raddysh took a pass from forward Zemgus Girgensons and got the puck to the net, where it bounced off Luukkonen’s helmet and found the net.
TBL 2, BUF 2
9:20 Alex Tuch (24) - Unassisted
Buffalo forward Alex Tuch knotted the game at two goals a side, rushing into the right side of the Lightning zone and scoring on a snap shot into the left half of the net.
BUF 3, TBL 2
17:09 Peyton Krebs (5) - McLeod, Benson
The Sabres took their first lead of the game on a netfront shot by forward Peyton Krebs.
Shots on goal: BUF 12, TBL 7
Second period
TBL 3, BUF 3
00:58 Jake Guentzel (30) - Erik Cernak, Nikita Kucherov
Tampa Bay scored less than a minute into the second period to tie the Sabres. Defenseman Erik Cernak burst down the right wing before finding Jake Guentzel with a backdoor pass.
BUF 4, TBL 3
9:35 Thompson (31) - Dahlin, JJ Peterka
Tage Thompson’s shot from the left faceoff circle found the back of the net for the game’s seventh goal in period two.
BUF 5, TBL 3
Peterka (19) - Unassisted
Buffalo extended its lead after a Lightning turnover, as forward JJ Peterka scored top shelf from the right faceoff dot.
BUF 5, TBL 4
17:41 Guentzel (31) - Brayden Point, Paul
Guentzel gloved down a pass from Brayden Point and danced through the front of the net, scoring on the backhand to pull the Lightning within a goal of the Sabres.
BUF 5, TBL 5
18:46 Guentzel (32) - Hagel, Raddysh - PP
Guentzel finished the hat-trick with a power-play one-timer from the right faceoff circle, tying the game at five goals a side.
Shots on goal: TBL 13, BUF 8
Third period
TBL 6, BUF 5
1:40 Oliver Bjorkstrand (17) - Yanni Gourde, Kucherov
The newest Bolt gave the Lightning the game-winning goal on Thursday. Oliver Bjorkstrand buried a rebound near the left post after fellow trade acquisition Yanni Gourde got his stick on a Kucherov shot.
Total shots: BUF 32, TBL 26
