Lyon makes 38 saves, Sabres hand Panthers 4th straight loss

SUNRISE, Fla. -- Alex Lyon made 38 saves for his 11th win in his past 12 starts, and the Buffalo Sabres handed the Florida Panthers their fourth straight loss, 5-3 at Amerant Bank Arena on Monday.

Peyton Krebs had a goal and two assists, and Josh Doan had a goal and an assist for the Sabres (32-18-5), who have won six of their past seven games. Tage Thompson and Zach Benson scored, and Rasmus Dahlin and Ryan McLeod each had two assists.

“We got desperate but had the right mentality coming into the game,” Lyon said. “We had the right attitude the whole game. It was good.”

Sandis Vilmanis, Evan Rodrigues, and Uvis Balinskis scored for the Panthers (28-24-3). Sam Reinhart had two assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 15 saves.

Florida is 10 points behind Buffalo for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, and nine points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card.

“We are in trouble right now,” Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “We cannot try to outskill teams, and I don’t think that’s what we were trying to do tonight. But at some points in the game we are doing that, playing into their hands. We just have to get back to the basics, try to win a 1-0, 2-1 game here. Just try to go from there. We’re in one right now. If we don’t simplify things, this year is going to get away from us.”

Vilmanis put Florida up 1-0 just 37 seconds into the first period. Niko Mikkola's slap shot from the left point bounced off A.J. Greer into the left face-off circle to Vilmanis, who buried a snap shot over Lyon's glove.

Rodrigues made it 2-0 at 5:54 when his shot deflected off Sabres forward Jason Zucker's right skate in front and past Lyon's left pad.

“We gave up 20 shots and in the past six or seven games, we’ve only had one over 22,” Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “They are grinding, battling as hard as they can. With the number [of shots] we had, I have no complaint with what we did. You can always look at decisions we made with the puck, maybe we could have done something better with it. But for what we had … I have no complaint with how hard they are trying.”

Thompson cut the deficit to 2-1 at 15:03, using Alex Tuch as a screen and beating Bobrovsky with a snap shot from the high slot.

Krebs tied it 2-2 at 18:26. Dahlin fed a saucer pass to Krebs from the left circle, and Krebs backhanded the puck past Bobrovsky's glove at the right post.

“The message was [down 2-0] that we needed to break the puck out better,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “We tried to spread the ice out, make the ice bigger by going out into the neutral zone. I thought we did a lot better. We didn’t like the battles to start the game, they were winning the majority of them. You know why that team won two Stanley Cups. When they get over the puck, they are as good as any team and take a lot of pride in winning their battles.”

Benson gave Buffalo a 3-2 lead at 5:44 of the second period. McLeod beat Bobrovsky to a loose puck in the right circle and passed to Benson, who slid the puck under Gustav Forsling into an open net from the slot. Owen Power started the play when he cleared the puck down the ice as McLeod stepped out of the penalty box.

Benson later crashed into the boards early in the third period, returning for one shift before leaving the game. Ruff said he will be evaluated for an upper-body injury on Tuesday.

Balinskis tied it 3-3 with a power-play goal at 18:59. Reinhart sent a pass to Balinskis in the right circle from below the goal line, and Balinskis beat Lyon to the short side with a quick snap shot.

Zucker put the Sabres back in front 4-3 at 5:31 of the third period, finishing Doan's feed from below the goal line with a wrist shot from low in the left circle on the power play.

The Panthers got a 5-on-3 power play for a little more than a minute with 6:52 remaining, but Lyon and the Sabres stood their ground.

“We did a great job limiting their chances to the outside,” Lyon said. “Just grinded through it. It was an emotional part of the game, we just hardened ourselves and got the job done. That’s all you can do.’’

Doan then extended the lead to 5-3 at 17:51. Krebs rushed down the left side and sent a centering pass to Doan, who tapped it over Bobrovsky's glove from in tight.

“Just stick with it," Krebs said. “We have had great resiliency in our game and we know we are a good hockey team that can score goals."

Florida, which was already down a number of top forwards, including Brad Marchand and Anton Lundell, played most of the game without center Sam Bennett, who left the game after the first period with an upper-body injury.

Maurice did not have an immediate update on Bennett, saying “we’ll get a better handle on it tomorrow.”

“It seems like someone is getting injured every night," said Tkachuk, who missed 47 games while recovering from surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and sports hernia before returning on Jan. 19.

NOTES: Lyon won his eighth straight road game dating to Dec. 9, which is the longest run by a goalie in Sabres history. ... Vilmanis and Balinskis both scored, marking the first time in NHL history two Latvia-born players on the same team scored in a single game. The two will represent Latvia in the upcoming Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.