Tage Thompson ripped one past Andrei Vasilevskiy 33 seconds into the third period, and suddenly there was life inside KeyBank Center.
In just 4:39 of game time, the Buffalo Sabres turned a 4-0 deficit to 4-3. That nearly became 4-4, as Buffalo came out firing on all cylinders on the ensuing shift after Thompson’s goal.
But Nikita Kucherov had other ideas.
His natural hat trick in the third period ended any hope for a Buffalo rally, and the Tampa Bay Lightning never looked back, cruising to an 8-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.
“I thought we had moments throughout the game where we controlled it, for sure, with O-zone possession, getting our looks,” said Thompson. “But we just gave up way too many odd-man rushes and a team like that – they don't miss many. I feel like we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot, just giving them free looks.”
It’s the second time in as many games that Thompson has used that phrase – “shot ourselves in the foot.” Buffalo played a relatively sound first period up until 18:49 of the first period, when Tampa’s Scott Sabourin buried the rebound of a shot initially saved by Buffalo’s Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Sabourin was a trailing forward left unmarked by the Sabres on the ice.
And 49 seconds later, it was 2-0. John Carlson – who finished the game with five points (1+4) – converted on the power play within the final minutes of the period. Suddenly, a fine first turned into a two-goal deficit.
“The last two minutes (of the first period) we got a D involved that shouldn’t have been involved and gave them life,” Ruff said. “We just needed to just stay patient. We joined and gave them an odd-numbered rush, so we beat ourselves.”
The first-period hole the Sabres got themselves in was all the more frustrating considering the looks they had earlier in the period to get the game on their side. Much like Sunday’s loss to the Vegas Golden Knights – which Ruff deemed as having a “perfect” first period – Buffalo let its early scoring woes bleed into other aspects of their play.
“You look at the opportunities we started the game with, don’t let the frustration of not scoring lead to giving teams the other opportunities,” Ruff said. “If I think we stay patient, just get out of that period 0-0 going, ‘We played a good period. Played a good period.’”
Odd-numbered rushes were the story – after Brandon Hagel faced the KeyBank Center ‘boos’ and made it 3-0 at 4:33 of the second period, Yanni Gourde got his first goal of the season by finishing off a pass from a 2-on-1 rush at 13:02. That rush chance was generated due to an offensive-zone turnover by Buffalo.
“I think when we play how we want to play, we’re pretty dangerous,” Thompson said. “It’s when that starts going well for us, we start to feel a little too good about ourselves and try to do things that are outside of our game, our identity that we want to play to. And when we do that, then we find ourselves chasing and making turnovers and just hurting ourselves, honestly.”
The Sabres did seem to find their game, though. A quiet building turned rowdy when Josh Doan and Jason Zucker scored in quick succession to close out the second period, the former coming in the aftermath of a Ruff timeout.
There was hope when Thompson burst into the offensive 33 seconds into the third and got Buffalo within a goal.
But then came Kucherov on a breakaway, after the Sabres defensemen were caught too far up ice, a worrisome trend for Ruff’s group on Wednesday. From there, it was all Tampa Bay.
“We have to look ourselves in the mirror after this one,” Dahlin said. “I know we can play really good hockey. We've proven that, but we have to do it consistently. Today was not good.”
