Panthers Come Back On Sabres

     The Florida Panthers overcame the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 at BB&T Center on Tuesday night. The Panthers have won three straight games and nine of their last 13. It was the 100th NHL meeting between Florida and Buffalo. The Sabres have lost three straight games. Mike Hoffman participated in his 400th career game in the National Hockey League.
     Buffalo(28-24-7) was able to score on the power play at 5:14 of the second period. Jeff Skinner made a cross-ice pass from the left-circle dot. Sam Reinhart sent a pass from the right circle and Jack Eichel redirected the puck with the backhand from the low slot past James Reimer. Eichel put in his first tally ever versus the Panthers. It was the 11th point in the last nine games for Skinner against the Cats.
     In the third period, Florida(26-24-8) scored three goals in a 2:35 span. They tied it up 1-1 at the 3:07 mark of the frame. Aleksander Barkov cleared the puck out of the Panthers zone and Frank Vatrano poked it from the Sabres blue line into the offensive zone. Jonathan Huberdeau raced to the loose puck in the right circle and snapped a shot by Linus Ullmark for his 14th goal of the season.
     The Panthers scored 43 seconds later to took their first lead of the contest. Jayce Hawryluk was in the slot area and squared a pass to his right. Vincent Trocheck fired a wrist shot that hit the crossbar and the puck bounced off Hawryluk's hip in the crease and into the cage for his fourth goal of the campaign. Evgenni Dadonov was also credited with an assist on the play.
     The Cats made it a 3-1 at 5:42 on the 23rd goal of the season by Barkov. Vatrano connected a pass from the blue line to Huberdeau at the top of the zone. He backhanded a lead pass to Barkov in the low left circle and his shot trickled slowly through the pads of Ullmark for a goal. Barkov has scored four goals in the last two games.
     The Sabres though that they had closed the gap to 3-2 on the power play with 7:07 remaining on another Eichel goal. The call was reversed due to offside which waved off the tally.
     Florida would extend the margin to 4-1 with 3:15 left. Barkov handed the puck to Huberdeau in the left corner. He skated through the left circle and the low slot then swept in a backhand shot for his second goal of the contest and 15th goal of the year.
     Buffalo picked up a meaningless goal with 7.9 seconds to go as Vladimir Sobotka found the net. It was the first goal for him in 43 games.