Anton Lundell netted the tiebreaking goal just past the midway point of the third period and A.J. Greer scored twice as the visiting Florida Panthers cooled off the surging Buffalo Sabres with a 4-3 victory on Monday night.
Carter Verhaeghe recorded three assists, Sam Bennett added two and Sam Reinhart also scored for the Panthers, who have won two straight for the first time since a four-game win streak Dec. 13-19.
With the game tied at 2 and 8:32 left in regulation, Lundell pushed in the rebound of his own shot — amid plenty of net-front bodies — past Buffalo netminder Colten Ellis (28 saves) to give the Panthers their third lead. Greer added an empty-netter with 1:14 remaining, which proved the difference after Buffalo’s Alex Tuch scored with 14 seconds left.
Jacob Bryson and Zach Benson also had a goal for Buffalo, which lost for just the third time in the last 15 games. The Sabres had won three in a row and saw their six-game home winning streak end.
Florida wasted no time opening the scoring. Following an interference penalty on Josh Doan, the Panthers came through via the power play just 2:35 in, when Uvis Balinskis’ shot through traffic glanced in off Reinhart.
Buffalo equalized in similar fashion with 9:41 remaining in the opening period. From the left point, Bryson wristed the puck through plenty of traffic and past Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (20 saves).
With 4:49 left in the first, Florida regained the lead. On the push, Bennett left the puck for Greer to successfully convert short-side on Ellis.
The Sabres, however, tied it again. This time with 2:03 remaining in the second period, when a net-front Benson muscled the puck off a Tage Thompson shot past Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad and over the goal line.
Buffalo’s Lindy Ruff became the third head coach in NHL history to coach 1,900 regular-season games. Ruff’s counterpart on Monday, Florida’s Paul Maurice, is second (1,975) behind Scotty Bowman (2,141).
–Field Level Media
