Lightning beat Sabres for 7th straight time

Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper has staunchly said that his team is doing everything that the coaching staff has asked of them. Opening with three unanswered the goals, the Lightning maintained its lead to beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 at the First Niagra Center and pick up its seventh win of the season.

Then came the third, when Tampa Bay ensured it would not lose its grip on the game, keeping the Sabres off the shot clock until the 10:15 mark of the third period and limiting Buffalo to two shots total in the final period.

But Vasilevskiy stepped up, stopping all but a highlight-reel goal by Sabres star rookie Jack Eichel. The budding superstar moved away from Tampa Bay defenseman Andrej Sustr with a spin move along the left wall near the blue line before skating up ice.

Eichel cut the Sabres’ deficit to 3-1 with 4:21 gone in the second. The rookie has goals in three straight home games.

The Lightning added an empty-net goal late in the third period. That changed in a big way as Tampa Bay scored three times in the opening 20 minutes to take a 3-0 lead into the break.

Sabres coach Dan Bylsma pulled Ullmark, and then the Sabres put six shots on Vasilevskiy in the first 3 minutes of the second period. Sam Reinhart, Ryan O’Reilly and Tyler Ennis had prime chances.

As Sabres players left the ice to change their lineups, gaps were created and not closed thus allowing for the Lightning to dominate the first period.

“The first period was middle, the second period was hard and third period was [lowers hand down to ground]”, Vasilevskiy joked.

“We left Linus open there”. They did, and one of the NHL’s premier snipers made it 1-0 with 5:55 gone.

Valtteri Filppula made a nice pass to Stamkos who cash on the back door past Linus Ullmark.

Between the legs: Nikita Kucherov entered the Sabres’ zone and promptly dropped a no-look pass between his legs to Vladislav Namestnikov. PP opportunities-TB 0 of 3; Buf 0 of 2. “Last year we kind of found a balance to score a few goals and still play good (defense), and we have to understand we can still play good D and score”. Chad Johnson took over Buffalo’s net at the start of the second period.

IN GOAL: Andrei Vasilevskiy started in net.

NOTES: D Carlo Colaiacovo and C Tim Schaller were scratched for the Sabres….

Lone wolf: Weber picked up an assist on Eichel’s goal for his first point of the season. McGinn missed a chance to play against his brother, Jamie McGinn. The folks in the stands included the Terry Pegula-funded Penn State hockey team.

In front of First Niagara Center, the famed French Connection line of Rene Robert, Gilbert Perreault and Richard Martin is immortalized with a bronze statute that is the centerpiece of the Alumni Plaza, which features five brick columns covered in plaques honoring former players, each column representing a separate decade of Sabres history.

No, and it was more of the other way around. Miller and the Vancouver Canucks come to town for a 1 p.m. faceoff Saturday in First Niagara Center.