Sabres down Lightning 8-7 in WILD Game with over 100 Penalty Minutes

The Buffalo Sabres-Tampa Bay Lightning game on Sunday turned out to be an NHL all-time classic as the hosts edged out the visitors 8-7 in a 15-goal thriller.

Sabres down Lightning 8-7 in WILD Game with over 100 Penalty Minutes

Buffalo Sabres vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (Image via Bleacher Report)

The Buffalo Sabres and the Tampa Bay Lightning produced an NHL classic on Sunday. At the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, the home side took down the visitors 8-7 in a game that had over 100 minutes in penalty.

The two teams battling for the top spot in the Atlantic Division came into this game on contrasting form. The Sabres had won 6 of their previous games, which included a 6-2 win over the Lightning at Benchmark International Arena.

The Lightning, on the other hand, had suffered a dip in form. Since the NHL’s restart after the Olympic Games, they had lost 4 of the 6 games. Their 38-14-4 record had thus become 39-18-4 before this showdown against the Sabres on Sunday.

The first scrum broke out inside 5 minutes after Brandon Hagel of the Lightning boarded Tage Thompson of the Sabres. While he received a 2-minute penalty for this, his teammate Darren Raddysh got into a brawl with Rasmus Dahlin, who did not like Hagel’s hit.

The two stars would receive a 5-minute penalty for fighting. Four minutes later, Sam Carrick (Sabres) and Scott Sabourin (Lightning) got involved in a fight and received a 5-minute penalty.

Moments later, Peyton Krebs threw haymakers with Hagel near the Lightning goal. While they got slapped with a 5-minute penalty for fighting, Bowen Byram and Charle-Edouard D’Astous received a 10-minute penalty for misconduct. The two of them had started swinging at each other during the Krebs-Hagel fight.

As the players and referees tried to separate them, Stone Cold Steve Austin‘s WWE theme blared around the arena, summing up the situation.

With less than 10 minutes into the game, the penalty boxes were packed. Nikita Kucherov was seen sitting on the floor as all seats were taken.

The situation between Hagel and Dahlin was not done, however. In the second period, another wild scrum broke out after the Lightning star started throwing some punches at him. Dahlin at first did not seem too interested in fighting him.

Before this, there were two fights as well. The first one was between Michael Kesselring and Erik Cernak. The second came just seconds later between Corey Perry and Beck Malenstyn.

Hagel would receive a 2-minute penalty for roughing Dahlin. In total, there were 18 penalties in the first period and a total of 28 in the entire game. This resulted in over 100 penalty minutes.

Sabres edge Lightning in 15-goal thriller

While punches were flying in the game, so were the goals. At one stage in the second period, the Buffalo Sabres were 4-1 up. Goals from Josh Doan, Jason Zucker and Alex Tuch had put them 3-0 up in the game. Corey Perry pulled one back for the Tampa Bay Lightning before Tuch scored again.

Buffalo Sabres
Buffalo Sabres (Image via Yardbarker)

Goals from Nikita Kucherov, Zemgus Girgensons and J.J. Moser saw the Lightning end the second period at 4-4.

Another strike from Kucherov in the third period was followed by a goal from Brayden Point, which extended the Lightning’s lead to 6-4. After Sam Carrick pulled one back to make it 6-5, Branden Hagel found himself on the scoresheet to restore his team’s 2 goal lead.

Rasmus Dahlin then stepped up and scored his 13th goal of the season to cut the deficit to one. Zucker then scored his second of the game to tie up the game at 7-7.

Doan, who started the scoring, would end it with a power-play goal. The 15th goal of the game saw the Sabres retake the lead against their division rivals.

There was another brawl towards the end of the game. The Sabres held on and picked up the win in an NHL all-time classic.

With their 7th successive win, the Sabres improved their record to 39-19-6 and lead the Atlantic Division with 84 points from 64 games. The Lightning are second in the standings with 82 points from 62 games.

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