Florida defeated Buffalo 2-1 on Tuesday, jumping over Pittsburgh and the Islanders in the Wild Card race
The Florida Panthers and Buffalo Sabres locked horns on Tuesday night at FLA Live Arena in what was essentially a playoff game for both.
With a handful of games left in the regular season, Florida and Buffalo are fighting for their respective playoff lives.
On this night, it would be the battle-tested Panthers who came out on top.
Matthew Tkachuk scored the game-winning goal less than a minute into the third period, but the story of the night was the goaltending.
Buffalo rookie Devon Levi matched Panthers veteran Alex Lyon save-for-save in what felt like a postseason battle from beginning to end.
Lyon finished with 39 saves while earning his fourth consecutive victory for Florida, a tightly contested, nail-biting 2-1 win.
The Panthers also got some help on the out-of-town scoreboard, with the Pittsburgh Penguins losing to the New Jersey Devils 5-1.
Florida jumped over both the Penguins and the idle New York Islanders and moved from outside of a playoff position to the first Wild Card spot.
Now, with four games remaining for all three teams, the Panthers are in control of their own destiny and hold tiebreakers over both Pittsburgh and the Isles.
FIRST PERIOD
Alex Tuch scored a goal on Buffalo’s first shot of the game, walking out from behind the net untouched and stuffing the puck past Lyon, who was on the ice before Tuch came above the goal line.
Fortunately, Tuch came into the zone early and Florida challenged for offside.
Soon after, Florida was a power play after Tuch was called for slashing but Levi made several big saves to keep the Panthers off the board.
Moments after the power play ended, Eetu Luostarinin took an offensive zone high sticking penalty.
Shortly after, Dylan Cozens would open scoring on a wrist shot from above the right faceoff circle that eluded Lyon on the glove side.
Florida would get another power play right off the ensuing faceoff when Tyson Jost played the puck with his hand, but again the Panthers would come up empty.
Another Buffalo power play came in short order, but this time it was Lyon coming up with a pair of big saves on Jeff Skinner and Tage Thompson to keep Florida’s deficit at one.
The Panthers were then granted another power play, their third of the period. This time the Cats would finally get one past Levi.
Aaron Ekblad was stopped on back-to-back shots before cashing in on a funky wrister that went off the post and off Levi’s elbow before trickling in the net.
The period ended with a total five power plays doled out. Buffalo scored on one of their two while the Panthers picked up a goal on their third opportunity.
Shots were 14-12 Florida, but the score was tied at one.
SECOND PERIOD
Lyon came up with a big save on Tuch in the opening minute of the second, pushing hard from his left to his right and getting his frame in front of the puck.
Levi took his turn making a show stopping save, robbing Anthony Duclair on a 2-on-1 after a perfect cross-ice pass from Barkov.
While killing off another Panthers penalty that came from an Eric Staal hooking call, Anton Lundell and Luostarinen each had big blocked shots and Lyon had a strong save on Skinner.
Ultimately, the story of the second period was the goaltenders, a far cry from the story of the first period, which was the officials.
After two exciting periods the game remained deadlocked at one.
THIRD PERIOD
A great shift by the second line during the first minute of the third period led to the Panthers go-ahead goal.
It all started with back-to-back steals by Luostarinen below the goal line that extended the shift.
The puck eventually found its way to Brandon Montour at the point, who fired a wrister at the net that was deflected home by Tkachuk.
Florida did a good job of limiting Buffalo’s opportunities for much of the final frame despite the Sabres pushing for a tying goal.
Levi made the biggest save of the game with about 5:30 to go when Tkachuk got loose on an uncontested breakaway from the center red line.
Tkachuk cut to his right and tried deking around Levi, but the young goaltender stayed right with him, keeping his paddle along the ice to stop Tkachuk’s backhand.
After that, it was Lyon’s turn to play spoiler.
He made save after save as Buffalo peppered the Florida net with shots, stopping 18 pucks during the third period alone.
GAME NOTES
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