TAMPA – The Tampa Bay Lightning’s rally over the Buffalo Sabres did not need any unlikely endings, negative scenes, or something suspenseful that could jostle the Bolts’ mindsets after winning 10 of their last 11 games.
Jake Guentzel provided a hat-trick and newly-acquired Yanni Gourde assisted Oliver Bjorkstrand’s game-winning goal as the Lightning battled back from a 5-3 deficit to edge the Buffalo Sabres, 6-5, on Thursday evening.
“It was odd because I feel like we haven’t had a hat trick in a while here,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “You’re like, ‘Wow1’ He scored some goals here so to see the hats out was pretty sweet.”
Bjorkstrand scored off a rebound in front of Buffalo goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen at 1:40 in the third period to allow the 6-5 win while Gourde was credited with an assist.
The defense and Andrei Vasilevskiy came up strong in the third period although the Sabres outshot Tampa Bay, 12-6, in the last 20 minutes while Vasy regained his footing in the third period and stopped all 12 of those Sabres attempts.
Captain Victor Hedman was injured in the middle of the first period and Nikita Kucherov didn’t play in the last 7:28 of the second. Kucherov came back and figured with an assist of Bjorkstrand’s game-winning score.
“I was trying to stay around the net and I saw Kucherov had the puck, so I figured something would probably happen,” stated Bjorkstrand. “’Gourd-O’ had a good screen and it came right in front of me, so I tapped it in.”
After JJ Peterka scored his 19th goal of the season at the 12:40 mark of the second period, the Lightning rallied as Guentzel scored at even-strength at 17:43 before his power-play goal at 18:46 evened the score at 5-5.
“The resetting was the easy part, Cooper commented. “It was getting to the end of the second with a 5-5 tie. It was 5-3 with four minutes left in the period and then we get the big one, 5-on-5, and the PP goal, so that made it somewhat manageable in the third. Basically, it became a scoring affair. “
Kucherov and Brandon Hagel posted two assists each while Buffalo’s Zach Benson and Ryan McLeod each handed out two helpers.
Tampa Bay moved into fourth in the Eastern Conference as the Lightning is just three points off of second-place Florida.
Gourde, Bjorkstrand’s Additions : Tampa Bay is one of the best-managed organizations in professional sports and Lightning GM Julien Brisebois once again proved this when he brought forward Yanni Gourde back into the team and added forward Oliver Bjorkstrand.
Gourde won back-to-back Stanley Cups in Tampa Bay in 2020 and 2021 as he was a team catalyst. He then went over to Seattle in 2021 in the expansion draft and was key in helping the Kraken make the playoffs in only their second year in the NHL.
“I thought we had a few chances and I wanted to be around the paint and create some stuff around the paint,” acknowledged Gourde. “I was so excited for Oliver to get that and he played a really great game tonight.”
Bjorkstrand played his first seven seasons with Columbus before playing in Seattle’ first three seasons. He had 16 goals and 21 assists before Wednesday’s trade.
“Anytime you are on a new team, it’s nice when you get your first goal, so I am happy that I could help out in that way and glad we could find a way to win,” stated Bjorkstrand.
