Red-hot Buffalo and Tampa Bay clash atop the Atlantic Division.
After two closely contested road wins out of the break, the Sabres now draw an even tougher assignment.
Buffalo will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Benchmark International Arena, a matchup of two of the NHL’s hottest teams.
Since the Sabres turned their season around on Dec. 9, they (23-5-2) and the Lightning (22-4-2) lead the league in wins. Buffalo, coming off one-goal victories at New Jersey and Florida, enters Saturday in second place behind the Atlantic Division-leading Lightning.
This will be second of four late-season meetings between the teams. Earlier this month, the Sabres took a lead into the final minute, but Darren Raddysh tied it in regulation and Jake Guentzel won it in overtime for the Lightning.
That game, like this one, was the tail end of a back-to-back for the Sabres, who are 5-1-2 in that situation this season.
Here’s what you need to know before another high-stakes matchup in Tampa.
TV (Sabres broadcast market): MSG (Pregame coverage begins at 6:30 p.m.)
Streaming: Gotham Sports App, ESPN+ (out of market)
Radio: WGR 550 / Buffalo Sabres App
More ways to watch/listen to Sabres games
Zach Benson will be back in the lineup, coach Lindy Ruff confirmed pregame.
Benson has been out since Feb. 2, when he sustained an upper-body injury during the Sabres’ win in Florida. That injury improved during the Olympic break, but a second issue – which Benson described as a “viral” ailment – has held him out of the past two games.
Ruff said Benson will begin the game “down the lineup,” but could provide a fresh body on various lines to help manage ice times on the back-to-back set.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen will start in goal. Here’s the full projected lineup:
A tight-checking game produced just one power-play goal apiece for Buffalo’s Alex Tuch and Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk. That was, until Beck Malenstyn blasted home his fifth goal of the season with 8:22 remaining.
Beck Malenstyn gives the Sabres a 2-1 lead
Peyton Krebs, the empty-net specialist, padded the lead with 1:17 on the clock – that proved to be the game winner, with the Panthers adding a last-minute goal. Once again, in a closely fought road game against the two-time defending champions, the unfazed Sabres found a way to collect two points.
“That’s been a huge strength of the group as of late: everybody’s willing to do what it takes to win hockey games,” Malenstyn said postgame. “That physical sacrifice, being willing to take a hit as a winger to get a puck out of the zone, take a hit as a D-man to make the right little play that you can break pressure, willingness to get to the front of the net. All of those things are contributing to winning hockey, and it’s looked really good for us.”
Read more in Friday’s Postgame Report.
Tampa Bay has played high-event hockey since the break, beating Toronto 4-2 on Wednesday and losing 5-4 at Carolina on Thursday. It hasn’t lost consecutive games since mid-December.
Nikita Kucherov dominated with four points (1+3) in the Feb. 3 matchup against Buffalo, but it was just another night at the office for the veteran winger. He’s got 44 points (13+31) since Jan. 1, the hottest 18-game stretch by any player since Mario Lemieux in 1995-96.
Forward Brayden Point missed a few weeks plus the Olympics (he’d been selected to Team Canada) with an injury, but he’s returned to collect five points (3+2) in the last two games.
Expect Andrei Vasilevskiy to start in net after backup Jonas Johansson played Thursday. The big Russian has won nine straight games with a .938 save percentage. Looking further back, Vasilevskiy is 17-0-1 with a .925 save percentage since Dec. 20.
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