Thomas Vanek’s hat-trick lifts Buffalo Sabres to beat Tampa Bay Lightning by 4-2: NHL Update
Thomas Vanek recorded his first hat-trick of the season and the goalie, Jhonas Enroth, turned aside 23 shots to help the Buffalo Sabres hold off the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 on Tuesday night.
Tim Connolly tallied a goal and dished out two helpers, while Jason Pominville also had two assists for Buffalo, which has improved to 7-1-2 in its past nine contests.
Connolly was pleased with his side’s performance. He said after the game, "We did a good job of limiting our turnovers because they're a team that thrives off of that. We're playing as a group and we're playing as a team out there and are moving things in
the right direction."
With this victory, Sabres have 92 points and moved into seventh-place in the Eastern Conference. Buffalo sits one point ahead of the idle New York Rangers and one point behind the sixth-placed Montreal Canadiens. The Sabres now need one point in either of
their final two contests or the ninth-placed Carolina Hurricanes loss to clinch a post-season berth.
Vincent Lecavalier and Ryan Malone both notched goals for Tampa Bay, which witnessed its five-game winning streak come to an end. The Lightning have dropped for the first time in four road contests. The goal-tender, Dwayne Roloson, surrendered all four goals
on 20 shots in the loss.
The Lightning, Head Coach, Guy Boucher was disappointed that his side did not make his chances. He said, "We were missing the net and didn't shoot when we were in the offensive zone so it's our fault that we lost.”
Currently the Lightning (44-25-11) are in fifth-place in the Eastern Conference. They sit three points behind the fourth-placed Pittsburgh Penguins which beat the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday. Tampa Bay will end the season in either fourth or fifth place.
Tampa Bay got the scoring started in the 14th minute of the opening stanza when Malone whacked in a rebound off a right point shot from Mike Lundin.
Less than three minutes later, Vanek tied it for the Sabres on the power-play when he chipped in a Jason Pominville’s shot for his first goal of the game.
The Sabres took a 2-1 lead eight minutes into the middle frame on Vanek’s second goal of the night. The game was set up by Pominville, who dug the puck out along the right boards and sent a pass in front of the net, where Vanek lifted in a backhand.
Buffalo extended their lead to 3-1 with less than seven minutes to play in the middle period, when Connolly unleashed a wrist-shot that beat Roloson for his 13th goal of the season.
Tampa Bay reduced its deficit to 3-2 with less than a minute into the final period when Lecavalier wristed a shot from the high slot past the Sabres’ net-minder.
Vanek closed the scoring with just 17 seconds into the third stanza when he blasted a shot from just inside the blue line to register the seventh hat-trick of his career.
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