BUFFALO — The Buffalo Sabres might have thought they were in for a good night when Matt Moulson scored on the Sabres’ first shot of the game Friday night against the Tampa Lightning. But when they needed more goals, Tampa’s goaltender denied them.
Moulson’s goal, at 2:58 of the first period accounted for half of the Sabres total scoring. Zemgus Girgensons and Taylor Fedun assisted on the goal, which started with Fedun forcing a turnover. Their only other goal came half way through the third period when Evander Kane scored from Jack Eichel and Justin Falk at 10:30.
Tampa scored three times on Sabres’ netminder Anders Nilsson — once in the first period and twice in the second. An empty netter with 18 second remaining in the game shored up the 4-2 win for the Lightning, officially killing the comeback attempt the Sabres had been working on. Ondrej Palat scored twice for Tampa and assisted on their third goal, which Nikita Kucherov netted. Anton Stralman bagged the empty netter.
Sabres’ captain Brian Gionta said, “It’s the same trend. We had a tough two periods to start the game. We turned it up in the third — and just too late. We can’t keep relying on that.”
The Sabres, now 16-16-9, play again tonight when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes.
