The Buffalo Sabres have been one of the most surprising teams in the NHL this year. They are 6-2-2 in the last ten games, including a Sabres five-game winning streak. The team fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime, 4-3, on Tuesday night, but there was still a highlight.
According to BucciOT.com, the Sabres not only became the first team in the NHL this year with three defensemen to have 10-plus goals, but it is also the first time in Sabres history that this has happened.
Late in the first period, Mattias Samuelsson beat Andrei Vasilevskiy for his tenth goal of the season. He joined Rasmus Dahlin and Bowen Byram as blueliners with ten-plus goals this year. Dahlin currently has found the back of the net 11 times, while Byram has ten. Samuelsson would add another goal in the third period, giving him 11 on the season.
The Sabres had the lead late into the third period, but Darren Raddysh scored with 26 seconds left in the game to tie it up. Jake Guentzel then scored in overtime to give the Lightning the victory.
“I think we just shrunk a little bit too deep, gave them a little bit too much room for the shot. But heck of an effort. You could see that, back to back, (we) didn’t quite have the energy early, but we found some energy late,” said Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, according to Justin Alpert of Sabres.com.
Samuelsson has been playing solidly as of late. In his last 16 games, he has lit the lamp five times while adding ten helpers.
“Playing with a little confidence offensively, just trying to get involved where I can,” the blueliner said.
The overtime loss puts the Sabres another point behind the division-leading Lightning, but still in third in the Atlantic Division.
“I think everybody realizes that the Atlantic Division, it’s extremely tough,” Ruff said. “It just seems like every game, every night now, is a tight game. We’ve just got to make sure, when we get the lead like that late, we can find a way to close it out.”
The Sabres are now 32-18-6 on the season, six points behind the Lightning and two points behind the Detroit Red Wings in the division. They will play their final game before the Olympic break on Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
