The Sabres and Lightning are tied for first in the division with 102 points each, two points ahead of the Montreal Canadiens. Tampa Bay has played one fewer game than Buffalo and also holds the tiebreaker.
Alex Tuch and Josh Norris scored, and Bowen Byram had two assists for the Sabres (47-23-8), who had lost two straight. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 23 saves.
Nikita Kucherov scored his 400th NHL goal, Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 25 saves for the Lightning (48-23-6), who had won two in a row and five of six.
Tuch gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 5:42 of the first period. Fresh out of the penalty box, Tuch received a cross-ice pass from Byram in the neutral zone and skated it to the high slot before scoring with a wrist shot that beat Vasilevskiy blocker side inside the left post.
Kucherov tied it 1-1 on the power play at 11:45, burying a one-timer from the right circle off a cross-ice feed from Guentzel.
He is the second player in Lightning history to score 400 goals, joining Steven Stamkos (555).
Norris put the Sabres back in front 2-1 at 14:04 when he received a drop pass from Josh Doan in the right circle and put a wrist shot short side on a screened Vasilevskiy.
Guentzel tied it 2-2 at 3:56 of the second period, roofing a shot over Luukkonen's blocker from the high slot after Darren Raddysh kept a clearing attempt in at the right point.
Zucker gave Buffalo its third lead of the game at 7:38. He deflected Byram’s one-timer from the right point over Vasilevskiy’s glove to make it 3-2.
Jack Quinn scored an empty-net goal at 18:06 of the third period for the 4-2 final.
