Dylan Cozens scored twice as part of a three-point night, Jordan Greenway had a goal and an assist and the Buffalo Sabres capped a disappointing season with a 4-2 win over the host Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night.
Cozens scored at even strength in the first period and found the back of the net short-handed in the second before adding a helper in the third as Buffalo (39-37-6, 84 points) won the season series 3-1-0.
Zach Benson also scored and Jack Quinn had two assists for the Sabres, while backup goaltender Eric Comrie stopped 31 shots.
Buffalo earned its first three-game winning streak in Tampa Bay since a seven-game run from Oct. 13, 2005, to Dec. 6, 2008.
Tampa Bay (44-29-8, 96 points) watched Steven Stamkos reach the 40-goal plateau for the seventh time in his 16-season career, and Erik Cernak also scored. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves.
In his Art Ross Trophy chase to be the league’s leader in points, Lightning right winger Nikita Kucherov logged his 99th assist of the season to move his NHL-best total to 142 points.
The Lightning finish their regular season on Wednesday against the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs.
Cozens collected a loose puck on a rebound and beat Vasilevskiy from in close just 1:26 into the game. Quinn and Bowen Byram recorded assists on the marker.
The home side outshot Buffalo 16-9 in the first but could not beat Comrie in his 10th appearance of the season.
However, a careless turnover by Rasmus Dahlin in front of Comrie led to a quick feed from Kucherov to Stamkos, who potted his 40th marker of the campaign at 2:27 of the second to even the contest.
Shortly after, Tampa Bay’s Luke Glendening, a top faceoff specialist who has played every game this season, surged for a big hit on Connor Clifton, lost his edge and went hard into the corner boards. He then trudged into the dressing room hunched over and holding his arm.
Just as Buffalo did, the Lightning committed a bad turnover, and Cozens took a pass from Greenway and buried a short-handed tally, his 18th goal of the season, at 5:08 of the second for a 2-1 lead.
Greenway notched his 10th goal on another rebound in close at 16:13, and the Sabres held a two-goal lead at the second intermission.
In the third, Cernak’s second goal cut Tampa Bay’s deficit to one at 9:39, but Benson answered with his 11th marker just 15 seconds later as Buffalo held on to win.
–Field Level Media
