Point leads Lightning to season-closing win vs. Sabres
TAMPA, Fla. -- Brayden Point ended an impressive rookie with his second multi-goal game of the week to lift the Tampa Bay Lighting to a season-closing 4-2 victory against the Buffalo Sabres.
Andrei Vasilevskiy closed out the season by picking up his 23rd victory of the season while making 26 saves for Tampa Bay. Braydon Coburn also scored for Tampa Bay while Victor Hedman had a goal and assist to finish with a career high 72 points, second most among defensemen.
Linus Ullmark, making his first appearance of the season, finished with 33 saves for Buffalo. Evander Kane and William Carrier scored for the Sabres.
Point's second of the night came with 1:24 left in the third period as a centering pass deflected off Rasmus Ristolainen and in to the net. Hedman added the empty net goal with one second left in the game.
While Ullmark was denying some Grade-A chances for Buffalo early in the game -- including two point-blank stops on Jonathan Drouin -- the Sabres rewarded their goaltender by grabbing the lead late in the first period as Carrier skated down the right-wing side and sniped a wrist shot from the circle to the top far corner past Vasilevskiy at 13:56.
But Tampa Bay would get even early in the second period as Point found inside position at the top of the crease to tap in a pass from Hedman for his 17th goal of the season.
The Lightning went to work on the penalty kill for the first time in the game later in the period and after some strong work by Vladislav Namestnikov, Tampa Bay took the lead as Namestnikov created a 2-on-1 that he finished off by feed Coburn for a tap-in for his second career shorthanded goal to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead at 12:20.
In the third, after Ullmark denied Drouin in close on his sixth shot on goal of the game, the Sabres countered the other way and Brian Gionta fed a perfect cross-ice pass to a streaking Kane charging to the post for a backdoor tap in at 11:17.
NOTES: Tampa Bay placed LW Gabriel Dumont on waivers Sunday for the purpose of assigning him to Syracuse of the American Hockey League to join the Crunch for the playoffs. ... The Lightning reassigned RW Michael Bournival and RW Joel Vermin to Syracuse. ... Tampa Bay scratched D Jason Garrison (lower body), C Tyler Johnson (lower body) and C Cedric Paquette (lower body). ... Buffalo scratched RW Kyle Okposo (undisclosed illness), D Taylor Fedun (foot), D Justin Falk, C Sean Malone, LW C.J. Smith, LW Marcus Foligno (knee) and G Anders Nilsson (undisclosed). ... Buffalo completed a league-high 18th set of back-to-back games. ... Buffalo RW Evander Kane and Lightning D Victor Hedman each recorded their 300th career point. ... Tampa Bay closed the season on a 20-6-4 run in the final 30 games.