Sabres beat NHL-best Lightning in overtime
TAMPA, Fla. — Jason Pominville scored on a power play at 1:26 of overtime to give the Buffalo Sabres a 2-1 victory over the NHLleading Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.
Pominville beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with a one-timer from the left circle to give the Sabres their second straight victory over the Lightning.
Evan Rodrigues tied it for Buffalo in the third, and Chad Johnson stopped 21 shots.
Cory Conacher scored for Tampa Bay, and Vasilevskiy made 32 saves. With a point in the standings for the overtime loss, the Lightning became the first team to reach 90 points this season.
J.T. Miller, acquired from the New York Rangers on Monday, played 17:40 in his Lightning debut.
With NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov out with an undisclosed upper-body injury, the Lightning struggled to generate offensive chances and finished with 17 shots on goal while at even strength.
Jonathan Drouin and Nikita Scherbak scored in the second period and Montreal beat New York to extend its points streak to five games. Paul Byron also scored and Antti Niemi made 27 saves to help the Canadiens improve to 2-0-3 in their last five. Mathew Barzal scored his 18th of the season for the Islanders. Carter Hutton made 35 saves, Scottie Upshall and Alex Pietrangelo scored and St. Louis beat Detroit to snap a seven-game losing streak. Hutton improved to 6-2-1 in his last nine starts and 16-7-2 overall. Nathan MacKinnon and Tyson Barrie each had a goal and an assist in the Colorado’s win over Calgary. Matt Nieto and Nikita Zadorov also scored, and Semyon Varlamov made 30 saves. The Avalanche have won 11 of 12 home games to tighten the Western Conference playoff race. Colorado tied Calgary with 73 points and moved within a point of Anaheim and St. Louis for the second wild card.
The 2019 NHL draft will be held in Vancouver. The league announced the decision Wednesday and noted it will help the hometown Canucks launch their 50th season later that year. The two-day event will be June 21-22 at Rogers Arena.