Late mistakes prove costly in loss to Lightning

Jack Eichel was left to weigh the good with the bad at his stall in the KeyBank Center dressing room on Saturday, in the aftermath of one that got away.
The Sabres stood toe-to-toe with the Tampa Bay Lightning for 50-plus minutes, tied 3-3 when Mikhail Sergachev was assessed a double-minor for high-sticking with 6:33 remaining. Eichel was called for elbowing behind the Tampa net 13 seconds into the Buffalo power play, and the game unfolded from there.
Steven Stamkos scored the winner during four-on-four play with 5:16 remaining, Lawrence Pilut was called for holding two minutes later and Ryan Callahan added another goal on the ensuing power play, sealing a 5-3 win for the Lightning.

"I thought we worked hard," Eichel said. "Obviously, we didn't get the outcome we wanted. I thought there was a lot of good there for us. You're tied in your own building going into the third. It's frustrating that it ends like that, but you can't blame the refs.
"… I think we've just got to find a way. It feels like we're close right now. We've just got to get over that hump."

The Sabres have now held third-period leads in all three of their meetings with the Lightning, who hold a 10-point lead over second-place Calgary in the race for the Presidents' Trophy. On this night, the lead came in the form of a Marco Scandella goal that broke a 2-2 tie at 5:54 in the third.
The Lighting responded just 23 seconds later, capitalizing on a defensive-zone turnover forced along the boards by Stamkos, who fed Nikita Kucherov for the tying goal.
"We made a big mistake to the wrong people," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "They can turn around and attack pretty quickly, so that was unfortunate. … We put ourselves in position to win a hockey game. It's just unfortunate. It's a game of mistakes. We made the wrong mistakes at the wrong time."

The call against Eichel came on a collision between him and Ryan McDonagh, with officials ruling that the Sabres captain made contact with the defenseman's head. Eichel disagreed with that assessment, but showed empathy toward the referees' predicament.
"It's tough," he said. "It's such a fast game. For me, it's a rim going around. If you look at it again, I don't lift my arm, I don't move my elbow. I'm really just poking at the puck with my stick trying to avoid him, honestly, to try and get the puck.
"Incidental contact, I don't really even know how much I clipped him. Refs, they've got to make a decision at that point, it's tough on them too so I don't want to blame anyone in that situation."
Housley pointed to Stamkos' winning goal as an example of the attention to detail the Sabres need to have late in games, citing an ill-timed change as the reason the Lightning captain had ample space to shoot. He beat Linus Ullmark top-shelf with a shot to the far-side corner.
"We have some penalties going on where it's four-on-four," Housley said. "It's a situation, we're changing, they have two of the best players on the ice in the game. We put our forward in sort of a bad position there on the rush. You can't give those opportunities to players like that coming right down the slot."
There were examples of the Sabres' upward potential, too, particularly during a first period in which they outshot the Lightning by a 16-6 margin. Brayden Point opened the scoring for Tampa Bay just 26 seconds into the contest, but Sam Reinhart and Tage Thompson scored goals to give Buffalo a 2-1 lead heading into intermission.

"I thought we came out hard and we were playing the right way, shooting the puck, controlling the play," Scandella said. "So yeah, definitely, that's how we have to play."
The Sabres have three games remaining ahead of their bye week, all on the road during a swing through Western Canada. Scandella issued a vote of confidence going forward.
"It's going to be tough," he said. "But I feel like once our backs are against the wall, we play our best hockey. We're going to go on the road, simplify and grind out games. I'm very confident in this group. We're going to go out and have a good road trip."

Up next

The Sabres kick off their road trip with a visit to play Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night. Coverage on MSG-B begins at 8:30 p.m. with the GMC Game Night pregame show, or you can listen live on WGR 550. The puck drops at 9.