Late slip costs Sabres extra point in Tampa Bay

TAMPA, Fla. – The Buffalo Sabres were moments from securing all four points on their two-game Florida trip, but they’ll have to settle for three after a late comeback by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh tied the game with 26 seconds remaining in regulation, and forward Jake Guentzel scored on an overtime breakaway to hand the Sabres a 4-3 overtime loss Tuesday at Benchmark International Arena.

Buffalo leads the NHL in empty-net goals and has excelled at 5-on-6 defense over the last couple months, but the hard-shooting Raddysh, one of the top scoring defensemen in the league this year, had space to step into a one-timer and beat goalie Colten Ellis.

“I think we just shrunk a little bit too deep, gave them a little bit too much room for the shot,” said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff.

“But heck of an effort. You could see that, back to back, (we) didn’t quite have the energy early, but we found some energy late.”

The more rested Lightning had the bulk of the chances early, and they turned a Sabres giveaway into a Nikita Kucherov goal. Ellis was Buffalo’s best player as he made 12 saves in the first period, including five on high-danger chances, per Natural Stat Trick. The rookie goalie finished with 31 saves.

“Colten was huge for us,” forward Josh Doan said. “In the first period, we gave up way too many odd-man rushes and chances against, and he shut the door for us. He played a heck of a game for us.”

That goaltending paved the way for another offensive takeover from Mattias Samuelsson, whose second two-goal game gives him 11 tallies this season. Late in the first, he found the tiniest of holes in Andrei Vasilevskiy and beat the Tampa goalie from a near-impossible angle, tying the game at one.

And early in the third, Samuelsson stickhandled into the offensive zone and ripped a shot from the high slot to put Buffalo ahead 2-1.

“Playing with a little confidence offensively, just trying to get involved where I can,” the defenseman said.

Oliver Bjorkstrand tied it for the Lightning on the power play, then Doan responded with his own power-play goal with 5:07 remaining. The Sabres had additional chances but couldn’t extend the lead before Raddysh’s late goal. Overtime presented some opportunities, too, including a 2-on-1 rush for Rasmus Dahlin and Tage Thompson. Ultimately, Kucherov won a puck battle in the corner and fed Guentzel for his breakaway winner.

While the Sabres were disappointed to let a point slip away, they still did well to collect three of four against the division-leading Lightning and battle-tested Florida Panthers.

“Not that you’re happy with one point, but it’s a point that moves us in the right direction,” Doan said.

“… We’ve got a good team in here, and we’ve got a lot of belief in our group. So, that’s a game where it shows that we’re right there on the road with the top team in the conference.”

Here’s more from the overtime loss.

No Benson or Kesselring

Sabres forward Zach Benson didn’t play after sustaining an upper-body injury Monday against the Panthers. He’ll be evaluated by doctors when the team returns to Buffalo. In his absence, Konsta Helenius re-entered the lineup and was plus-one with three hits and four faceoff wins in 13:47 of ice time. Helenius also drew the penalty that led to Doan’s go-ahead goal.

Defenseman Michael Kesselring took warmups but was scratched, presumably to rest his recent ankle injury after playing Monday.

Standings check

Elsewhere on Tuesday in the Eastern Conference wild card race: Columbus and Toronto won in regulation, and Washington and Ottawa lost in regulation. Columbus, Toronto and Washington each have 63 points.

In the division, the Sabres are now even with Montreal (idle Tuesday) with 70 points in 56 games, but the regulation wins tiebreaker (26-20) puts Buffalo in third place for now. Detroit sits two points ahead with one more game played.

“I think everybody realizes that the Atlantic Division, it’s extremely tough,” Ruff said. “It just seems like every game, every night now, is a tight game. We’ve just got to make sure, when we get the lead like that late, we can find a way to close it out.”

Postgame audio

Up next

The Sabres return home for their last game before the break, facing the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday at 7 p.m. MSG’s pregame coverage starts at 6:30.

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