Luongo reaches milestone as Panthers topple Sabres
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Ian McCoshen scored 3:50 into the third period to lead the Florida Panthers to a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night.
With the win, the Panthers snapped a five-game losing streak.
Evgenii Dadonov, Aleksander Barkov and Vincent Trocheck also scored for Florida (5-8-2).
With the win, Roberto Luongo (24 saves) passed Curtis Joseph for fourth place all-time in wins by a goaltender with 455. Luongo played in his 500th game with the Panthers on Tuesday.
Luongo had a critical save with 6:32 remaining on a wrist shot by Sabres center Sam Reinhart.
Kyle Okposo scored the lone goal for the Sabres (5-9-2), who were unable to string together back-to-back wins after a victory on Tuesday against the Washington Capitals. Robin Lehner made 27 saves for the Sabres.
McCoshen's game-winner came on a screen shot with plenty of traffic in front of Lehner. With Barkov and Justin Falk jockeying for position in front of the net, McCoshen's shot from the left point found the bottom corner of the net to put Florida on top.
Okposo opened the scoring on a power-play goal with 6:58 remaining in the first period. The right winger picked up his second goal of the season by deflecting Victor Antipin's shot from the right point.
Dadonov evened the score 6:52 into the second. Lehner made an initial stop but gave up a big rebound in front of the crease. After the goaltender lunged toward the puck and came up short, Dadonov put the puck into the open net for his seventh goal of the season.
Barkov and Trocheck added empty-net goals late.
Lehner was terrific throughout for the Sabres. After a poor giveaway by Antipin late in the first period, Lehner reached to come up with pad save on a short breakaway by Radim Vrbata. Lehner also came up big five minutes into the second period on back-to-back saves on Nick Bjugstad.
NOTES: D Josh Gorges, D Matt Tennyson and LW Matt Moulson were scratched for the Sabres. Gorges has missed time with a lower-body injury but is nearing a return. ... D Alex Petrovic, C Jared McCann (lower body) and G Antti Niemi were scratched for the Panthers. McCann is considered day-to-day. ... This was the first of four meetings between the two teams this season. The next meeting takes place on Feb. 1 in Buffalo. ... Panthers coach Bob Boughner played for the Sabres from 1996-98 after being traded from Florida to Buffalo.