Sabres Deflect Lightning Strike

Sabres made quick work of making sure that they could strike before the Lightning and hand them their third straight loss.

The first period alone Buffalo was assessed 21 minutes worth of penalties that included Craig Rivet receiving a five minute fighting major, a two minute instigator along with a 10 minute misconduct just over two minutes into the game.

Jason Pominville of the Buffalo Sabres open the scoring for the night with a power play goal just over five minutes into the game; and showed no signs of slowing down as he went on to record a hat trick.

Tampa Bay’s best scoring chance came on a breakaway by Vincent Lecavalier that was stopped by Ryan Miller. Miller made 23 saves and held the Lightning scoreless until the third in route to a 6 – 2 victory in Tampa Bay.

Also scoring for the Sabres’ were Tyler Myers in the first, Thomas Vanek with an empty net goal, and Derek Roy scored a short handed goal in the second.

One of the hottest lines in the NHL has been the Steven Stamkos, Steve Downie, and Martin St. Louis line and they did not disappoint this game. Nearly half way though the third Stamkos and St. Louis assisted on Downie’s goal.

Stamkos earned a second point from an assist on the power play goal scored by Vincent Lecavalier make him to 42 goals and 40 assist for the season.

Three Stars: Jason Pominville, Derek Roy, Ryan Miller

Winning Goaltender: Ryan Miller

Losing Goaltender: Antero Niittymaki

Posted by Monica McAlister on Mar 19 2010. Filed under Buffalo Sabres, Tampa Bay Lightning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.