TAMPA, Fla. — Cedric Paquette and Ondrej Palat scored short-handed goals 49 seconds apart in the third period and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-2 on Monday night.
Paquette had a breakaway goal at 8:17, before Palat made it 5-2 on a 2-on-1 break.
Tampa Bay also got goals from Nikita Kucherov, Mikhail Sergachev and Yanni Gourde. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves and Palat added two assists.
Sam Reinhart and Jimmy Vesey scored, and Carter Hutton stopped 24 shots for the Sabres, who have lost 10 of 12 (2-8-2).
The Lightning swept a pair of games from the Sabres in Stockholm, Sweden, on Nov. 8-9. Since the start of the 2013-14 season, the Lightning are 22-4-2 against Buffalo.
After Sergachev scored during a power play at 7:20 of the second, Gourde’s redirection gave Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead 2:26 later.
Tampa Bay had one goal on four power-play chances and is 14 of 33 at home. Buffalo failed to score on four power plays, but had several quality chances turned aside by Vasilevskiy.
Vesey stole a pass from Sergachev at the Buffalo blue line and then put Buffalo up 2-1 on a breakaway goal 1:48 into the second. It was his first goal in 26 games, dating to March 29.
Kucherov scored from the top of the right circle 13 seconds into the game. Palat setup the goal for his 200th assist and 300th career point.
Reinhart got a tying goal off a rebound at 3:40 of the first. He has nine goals and 11 points in his last 10 games against Tampa Bay.
Jack Eichel assisted on Reinhart’s goal. He became the first Buffalo player to reach 30 points in 24 or fewer games since Thomas Vanek in 2012-13.
NOTES
Sabres D Rasmus Dahlin departed late in the second after it appeared he took an inadvertent elbow to the face. … Lightning C Steven Stamkos (lower body) missed his second consecutive game, but might be back later this week. … Eichel has five assists and 11 points during a six-game point streak.
UP NEXT
Sabres: Host Calgary on Wednesday night.
Lightning: Host St. Louis on Wednesday night.
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Mark Didtler, The Associated Press
