Sabres’, Lightning combine for most goals and penalties in a game since 1994
Do we possibly have a new rivalry in the works?
No one would have expected an early March game between the the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning to be must-watch hockey, but as the two teams are in a dogfight for the top spot in the Atlantic Division, it may now be a marquee event. The two teams put on a thriller of a match on Sunday evening, combining for 15 goals, 27 penalties and five fights as the Sabres came out on top by a score of 8-7.
The game was surprisingly tame on the scoring front in the first, as Josh Doan had the lone goal, although that frame saw most of the violence with 18 penalties and three fights. We got eight more penalties and two more fights in the second, but also saw seven goals, with the game tied 4-4 going into the second intermission. The two teams matured for the third, as it only saw two Lightning minor penalties, but seven more goals were scored, with the Sabres coming out on top.
The Lightning finished with three three-point scorers in Nikita Kucherov (two goals, one assist), J.J. Moser (one goal, two assists) and Darren Raddysh (three assists), while the Sabres got a four-assist performance from Tage Thompson, three-points from Jason Zucker (two goals, one assist), Rasmus Dahlin (one goal, two assists) and Bowen Byram (three assists), and multi-goal performances from Doan and Alex Tuch. As for penalty minutes, Charle-Edouard D’Astous (12), Brandon Hagel (11) and Erik Cernak (nine) led the way for Tampa, while Byram (12) and Michael Kesselring (seven) had the most for Buffalo.
Not surprisingly, it was a forgettable night for the goalies, as Jonas Johansson finished with an .810 save percentage and -4.07 goals saved above expected, while Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had a .786 SV% and -3.33 GSAx.
According to OptaSTATS, this is the first time since February 21, 1994 that the NHL has had a game with that many goals and penalties. In that game, which saw the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens by a score of 8-7, the two teams also had 27 penalties, although only two of them were fights.
The @BuffaloSabres and @TBLightning game saw 15 combined goals and 27 total penalties. The NHL has not seen a game reach both those totals since Flyers/Canadiens on February 21, 1994 (15 goals and 27 penalties).
Entering the game, the Sabres and Lightning were neck-and-neck for first place in the Atlantic, tied at 82 points each, although the Lightning had the tiebreaker having played two fewer games. With the win, the Sabres’ 39-19-6 record puts them two points ahead of the Lightning’s 39-19-4 record.
There was likely some pre-existing animosity between the two teams entering this game, as they played the prior week, which saw the Sabres embarrass the Lightning on home ice by a score of 6-2. The two teams play each other one more time in the regular season, an April 6th matchup in Buffalo which could decide the winner of the Atlantic Division.