The Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning played a game for the ages Sunday, March 8 – the kind the NHL hasn’t seen in decades.
You have to go back to Tampa Bay’s first season in the league, to Hall of Fame goaltender Dominik Hašek’s first season in Buffalo. To a time when Mario Lemieux had led the Pittsburgh Penguins to back-to-back championships and Wayne Gretzky was on the verge of leading the Los Angeles Kings to their first Stanley Cup Final.
In the Sabres’ 8-7 win in Buffalo on Sunday night, the teams combined for 15 goals and 28 penalties, the most since the St. Louis Blues and Washington Capitals combined for 16 goals and 28 penalties on Feb. 11, 1993, according to OptaSTATS.
Six different players scored for the Lightning, while five players scored for the Sabres, and seven had at least three points. Jason Zucker scored two goals, and he assisted on Josh Doan’s second goal, the game-winner with 4:17 remaining in the third period. Nikita Kucherov recorded two goals and an assist to lead the Lightning.
Tampa Bay had 57 penalty minutes and Buffalo 45, with Lightning defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous and Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram leading the way with 12 apiece. The teams also had seven fights.
According to OptaStats, the 15 goals and 102 penalty minutes totals had not been reached since an NHL playoff game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers on April 25, 1989 (17 goals and 130 penalty minutes).
The victory marked the seventh in a row for the Sabres, who moved into first place in the Atlantic Division. According to the NHL, the last time they were in first place in their division at this stage of a season or later was April 11, 2010.
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