Sabres Vs. Lightning: Five Sabres’ Third Period Goals Give Team 7-4 Victory

The Buffalo Sabres were 2-19-1 when they have been trailing after two periods this season, the Lightning were 22-1-1. So much for records at this point. The Sabres scored five third period goals to overcome a 3-2 deficit to defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-4 on Tuesday night.

The scoring started for the Sabres with a controversial Jordan Leopold goal four minutes into the third period. Leopold scored from a slapshot on the point but Tampa goaltender Dwayne Roloson was interfered with by Buffalo’s Drew Stafford. The Lightning never really recovered from that call as the Sabres rattled off four more goals in 3:13, two from Stafford, one from Thomas Vanek, and the other from Tim Connolly.

Drew Stafford scored the hat trick on the night, which is his third of the season. Stafford is the first Sabre since Thomas Vanek to record three hat tricks in a season. The aforemention Vanek had two goals and one assist while Leopold had a goal and two assists in the game.

For the Lightning, Sean Bergenheim had two goals of his own, one each in the first and second periods, while Vincent Lecavalier had two goals and an assist in the losing effort. Dwayne Roloson ended up staying in for entire game and had 21 saves on 28 shots while Miller had 30 saves on 34 shots from the Lightning.

Buffalo will travel down the state of Florida to take on the Panthers on Thursday night while the Tampa Bay Lightning will have a few days to think about this game as they face the Hurricanes on Saturday. For more on this game, please visit our Sabres site, Die By The Blade, and our Lightning site, Raw Charge.