The Tampa Bay Lightning ended a four-game slide with a 5-0 win against the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.
Ondrej Palat had a goal and an assist and Brian Elliott made 28 saves for the Lightning (44-20-8, 96 points), who jumped the Boston Bruins to take over third place in the Atlantic Division.
Craig Anderson made 23 saves for the Sabres (26-37-11, 63 points), who have lost three straight for the first time since a six-game losing streak Feb. 17-27.
Corey Perry gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 9:21 of the first period. Sabres forward Anders Bjork turned the puck over along the wall and Tampa Bay defenseman Zach Bogosian got it over to Perry, who scored from the slot.
Palat capitalized on another Buffalo turnover to double it to 2-0, just 17 seconds later. Palat picked off defenseman Casey Fitzgerald in the neutral zone, creating a 3-on-1, and dished off to Brayden Point. He quickly returned the favor to Palat, who snapped it off the rush at 9:38. It was his first goal since Jan. 11 — also against the Sabres.
Brandon Hagel pushed it to 3-0 at 1:12 of the second period. After Anderson stopped Anthony Cirelli’s attempt in front, an uncovered Hagel cleaned up the rebound at the right doorstep.
Nikita Kucherov extended it to 4-0 at 4:28. Ryan McDonagh, back in the lineup after missing eight games with an upper-body injury, found a wide-open Kucherov at the right of the net for his fourth goal in the past five games.
Ross Colton made it 5-0 at 2:09 of the third period. Two Sabres converged on Steven Stamkos behind the net; that left Colton uncovered at the bottom of the left circle, where he took a feed from Stamkos.
–Field Level Media