Buffalo Sabres – Tampa Bay Lightning Game Preview
Buffalo hoping to split their two-game Florida trip with win over the Lightning
© James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports - Buffalo Sabres – Tampa Bay Lightning Game Preview2/29/24 – 7:00 pm EST at Amalie Arena in Tampa, FL
Record
Buffalo – 27-28-4 | 58 points – 6th place in Atlantic Division
Tampa Bay – 32-24-5 | 69 points – 5th place in Atlantic Division
Special Teams
Buffalo
Power Play – 15.2% (27th)
Penalty Kill – 79.1% (17th)
Tampa Bay
Power Play – 29.0% (2nd)
Penalty Kill – 80.7% (13th)
Top Scorers
Buffalo
Rasmus Dahlin: 58 GP, 14 G, 30 A, 44 PTS
Casey Mittelstadt: 59 GP, 13 G, 31 A, 44 PTS
Alex Tuch: 52 GP, 16 G, 23 A, 39 PTS
Tampa Bay
Nikita Kucherov: 60 GP, 38 G, 65 A, 103 PTS
Brayden Point: 61 GP, 30 G, 33 A, 63 PTS
Victor Hedman: 59 GP, 10 G, 49 A, 59 PTS
Starting Goalies
Buffalo – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (17-15-2, 2.47 GAA, .914 save %)
Tampa Bay – Andrei Vasilevskiy (20-15-0, 2.99 GAA, .896 save %)
Line Combinations and Pairings
Buffalo
Forwards
Jeff Skinner-Tage Thompson- Alex Tuch
Jordan Greenway-Casey Mittelstadt-Dylan Cozens
Zach Benson-Peyton Krebs-JJ Peterka
Eric Robinson-Zemgus Girgensons-Kyle Okposo
Ex. Tyson Jost
Defense
Rasmus Dahlin(maintenance)-Henri Jokiharju
Owen Power-Ryan Johnson
Jacob Bryson-Connor Clifton
Goaltenders
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Eric Comrie
Dustin Tokarski
Injuries
Jack Quinn (IR – lower body
Erik Johnson (day-to-day – illness)
Notes
The Sabres are 7-2-0 in road contests since Jan. 1 and they rank third in road point percentage (.778) in that span. Buffalo has earned at least one point in five of its last six matchups with Tampa Bay (3-1-2).
In Buffalo’s last 17 games, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has made 15 starts and has recorded 380 saves on 407 shots (.934) in that span. Luukkonen ranks seventh in goals-against average (2.47), fourth in shutouts (4), and 10th in save percentage (.914) this season.
Rasmus Dahlin has skated 29 or minutes in each of Buffalo’s last seven games, which is the longest streak by a Sabre skater since the league began tracking time on ice in 1997-98. On Feb. 27 at Florida, Dahlin became the fourth Sabres skater, and the first since Rasmus Ristolainen from Dec. 5 to 8, 2017, to skate 30 or more minutes in consecutive games. No Sabres skater has ever done so in three consecutive games.
Dylan Cozens has 14 points (5+9) in his last 14 games, including six points in his last six games (2+4).
Owen Power has recorded one point in back-to-back games and a point in tonight’s game would give him his second point streak of three or more games this season. Power registered a four-game point streak (1+3) from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1.
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