Sabres pile up goals early, cruise past Lightning
Josh Norris scored twice as Buffalo found the net four times in the first period, and the Sabres easily won their third straight outing since the Winter Olympics break in a 6-2 rout of the host Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.
The visitors' victory pushed their road point streak to a season-best nine games (8-0-1). The Sabres play six of the next seven contests on home ice.
Rasmus Dahlin hit the net and had two assists, while Zach Metsa had a goal and a helper. Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch also scored, and goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 36 saves.
Following a four-game absence for an upper-body injury, Zach Benson was back and contributed an assist as the Sabres finished 4-1-1 in February's shortened slate because of the Olympic Games in Italy.
Tampa Bay's Victor Hedman tallied one goal and had an assist, and Dominic James scored. However, its 10-game home winning streak and Nikita Kucherov's league-high 12-game active point streak both ended.
Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy surrendered five goals on 14 shots in 21:54 of ice time. Jonas Johansson stopped 20 of 21 shots in relief.
After losing 4-3 to the Lightning on an overtime goal by Jake Guentzel on Feb. 3, the Sabres struck twice in 50 seconds in the rematch after toppling the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Friday.
Dahlin slid left-to-right through the slot and whistled one past Vasilevskiy at 5:25 of the opening period. Before the visiting celebration could die down, Norris swooped in from the right side and beat the netminder between the pads for a 2-0 lead.
At 8:16 on Buffalo's fifth shot, Norris stunned the Atlantic Division-leading Lightning again by redirecting Bowen Byram's shot through two Lightning defenders and Vasilevskiy for his second tally.
Thompson maneuvered his way in and slipped in the club's fourth goal with less than five minutes left. The Team USA gold medalist extended his point streak to seven games, his third streak that length thus far.
In the second, Metsa's early goal chased Vasilevskiy from the match, but James put the Lightning on the board at 16:03.
Shortly after Guentzel was ejected for receiving a game misconduct and an unsportsmanlike penalty 2:02 into the third, Tuch hit the net at the 3:53 mark. Hedman scored his first at 5:27 for the final marker.