The Buffalo Sabres lost their third-period lead with just over eight minutes to play and couldn’t regain their overtime magic in a disappointing loss to the Florida Panthers. Jeff Skinner’s 20th goal of the season and a two-point night for the red-hot Sam Reinhart weren’t enough to push the Sabres to victory and the team is currently 0-1-1 since their 10-game winning streak.
A sloppy first period by both clubs ended in a 1-1 tie. At the start of the second, the Sabres began to get their feet under them and after Reinhart notched his 6th of the season on the power play, it was looking pretty good for the Sabres. Somebody obviously forgot to tell the pesky Florida Panthers, however, and at the 2:26 mark of the overtime frame, Aleksander Barkov notched his 9th of the season to give the Panthers the two points.
Linus Ullmark did his best to keep his team in the game coming up with several point blank shots, but his 40 saves weren’t quite enough to steal a win as his record moves to 5-0-2 for the year.
Dating back to the 2016-2017 season, the Sabres are 0-5-1 against the Panthers in their last six games.
Florida’s power play was to much for the Sabres this evening and showed why it’s 4th in the league. Both of their regulation goals came with the man advantage with Jared McCann scoring in the second period and Evgenii Dadonov notching his 11th in the third.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Sabres when they visit Bridgestone Arena and the Nashville Predators on Monday night. The Predators are currently leading the Western Conference with 34 points. The game will be the final stop for the Sabres on their three game road trip.