The Tampa Bay Lightning continue their quest for the fifth division title in team history on Saturday when they visit the Buffalo Sabres.
Tampa Bay (44-26-5, 93 points) begins the day in second place in the Atlantic Division, three points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs with seven games remaining. The reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers are just one point behind the Lightning in the battle for home-ice advantage during the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Tampa Bay may have a slight scheduling edge down the stretch. After Saturday’s game with the Sabres, the Lightning play four of their last six games at home where they are a sparkling 27-8-2. The Maple Leafs, meanwhile, play four of their last six on the road that includes a difficult back-to-back with Florida and Tampa Bay on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Lightning come in off a 2-1 loss Thursday at Ottawa that snapped a four-game winning streak. Tampa Bay lost despite outshooting the Senators 32-19 overall and 11-3 in the final period, but the Lightning ran into a hot goaltender in 2023 Vezina winner Linus Ullmark. He made 31 saves, including one on a short-handed breakaway by Brandon Hagel six minutes into the final period. Anthony Cirelli hit the crossbar on another short-handed rush.
“The goalie made the saves he had to make and they blocked the shots they had to block and that was it,” said Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper. “If you ask me, ‘Hey, are you unhappy with your team tonight?’ No, I’m not. Sometimes you just don’t win those games, and we’ve won a lot of them, and tonight we didn’t.”
“We had our looks,” said Lightning forward Yanni Gourde. “I thought overall we played pretty good. We got our chances. We missed a couple. I missed one on the back door there. We had good looks.”
Buffalo (32-36-6, 70 points) brings a four-game home winning streak into the contest. The Sabres have won two in a row overall and five of their last six after Tuesday’s 5-2 win at Ottawa. James Reimer made 33 saves for his fifth straight win and Tage Thompson scored his 39th goal, which tied him with Alex Ovechkin for third in the league.
Thompson has scored five goals in his last five games while Alex Tuch has a four-game goal streak. The Sabres are 11 points behind Montreal for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with just eight games remaining.
“Obviously, too little too late this year, but I think we’re learning how to close out games,” Thompson said. “At the beginning of the season, you’d see us panic when games meant something. We’d have a lead and kind of blow it, but I think right now there’s no panic on the bench. I think there’s a lot of confidence that we can close games out.”
This is the second of three regular-season games between Tampa Bay and Buffalo. The Lightning, behind a hat trick by Jake Guentzel, rallied to win the first one, 6-5, in Tampa on March 6. The two teams also meet April 13 in Tampa.
–Field Level Media
