Tampa Bay Lightning Fight To Shut Out The Buffalo Sabres

12. 5. 23. Final. 0

The Tampa Bay Lightning came out tonight against the Buffalo Sabres with a fire in their hearts and a deep-rooted desire to bring home the win, and that’s just what they did. The Lightning defeated the Buffalo Sabres 5-0, giving Ben Bishop his first shutout of the season.

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There is no denying that the Buffalo Sabres didn’t go down without a fight, but we’ll talk about that a little later.

The Tampa Bay Lightning certainly came into this game to make a statement. It was just 2:33 in the first period when Radko Gudas would get his 2^nd goal of the season off of a pass from center Tyler Johnson. This is certainly a better start than the Lightning had in the previous few encounters.

The remainder of the first period was actually a lot less exciting than you would have thought and surprisingly enough seemed to pass by really quickly. It was a lot of back and forth between these two teams with little to no interruption.

About the only negative that can be said about this period is the sheer lack of offensive pressure; not just on the part of the Tampa Bay Lightning, but the Buffalo Sabres as well. Through the first twenty minutes of play, the Shots on Goal would be a paltry 8-5. We all know that they can do better than this.

On the other hand, the second period; that was all about the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Much like the first period, the action would kick off pretty early in the second period. The first goal of the period would come at the hot hands of the captain Steven Stamkos with a wrist shot off a pass from Ryan Callahan. The secondary assist would come at the hands of Alex Killorn.

Just 1:11 later it would be left wing Brenden Morrow who would redirect a beautiful shot from Jonathan Drouin to score his 2^nd goal of the season. The secondary on the Morrow goal belongs to defenseman Andrej Sustr. This would give the Bolts a three goal lead over the Sabres.

It wasn’t until after the halfway point in the period when Lightning would strike again. At 13:40 in the period, defenseman Jason Garrison would run Sabres goaltender Jhonas Enroth’s bell with his 3^rd goal of the season with assists from Steven Stamkos and Andrej Sustr.

Not only did this goal set the tone for the remainder of the game, but seemed to spark the fire that would burn out of control in the third period.

So…what is there to say about the third period? At some point this became more of a boxing match than a hockey game. The player on player violence really started around the time when Radko Gudas ended up in a headlock and the Sabres miraculously drew no penalty.

It was just five minutes later when all hell broke loose and there was a battle on the ice. Not once, not twice, but three times. It almost got to the point that there were more players in the penalty box than on the bench.

If you were one of the people who happened to miss the game, here is an illustration of what we are talking about. There are those instances when a picture is far less complicated than explaining it. This is definitely one of those instances.

Penalty Numbers from the Third Period between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday, December 4, 2014.

Photo Credit: Tampa Bay Lightning

There were 108 minutes in penalties assessed during the third period. There were 50 minutes on record for the Tampa Bay Lightning and 54 minutes for the Buffalo Sabres. This number includes six 10 minute penalties for Misconduct, three to each team.

There are plenty of words that come to mind on nights like this one, but the one that comes to mind is out of control. Don’t get me wrong, I am all about a good hockey fight, and even the occasional brawl, but when the referees continue to let things like this go players will eventually get hurt.

Just between you and I, and everyone else in the Bolts Nation, we all know that we have had our fill of injuries this season and have no desire to see someone else taken out.

The good news is, at some point we were able to get back to a good old fashioned hockey game. At 18:55, as Sabres defenseman Tyler Myers sat in the box for 2 Minutes for Slashing Lightning left wing Ondrej Palat, Brett Connolly would capitalize on the Power Play and sink his fifth goal of the season.

The assists on Connolly’s goal would go to center Valtteri Filppula and captain Steven Stamkos.

All in all, this was a good game for the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was definitely a better effort than they put up in Tuesday night’s shootout loss.

The captain definitely earned the honor of the first star of the night, which was bestowed upon him by the attending media at the game. Stamkos put up three points tonight; one goal and assists Garrison and Connolly’s goals.

The second star of the night would be awarded to Gudas for his game opening (and game winning) goal, his five hits, and his plus-2 rating.

It would be goaltender Ben Bishop who would get the third star of the night. This was in no small part to the spectacular performance he put on tonight by shutting out the Sabres, who had really seemed to find their groove prior to tonight’s encounter.

We are taking absolutely nothing away from Bishop and his immense skill in the net, but this had to be one of the easiest shutouts that Bishop has ever earned. Through 60 minutes of play, the Lightning outshot the Sabres 35-13. This is a massive improvement from the first period; well…at least for the Lightning.

Next up for the Lightning, they will play host to Nick Foligno and the Columbus Blue Jackets. As some of you may know, Nick Foligno is the brother of Buffalo Sabres left wing Marcus Foligno.

The Blue Jackets dropped five games in a row before embarking on the two game winning streak that they are currently on. As you can imagine, this means that they will be playing like the hungry team they are and looking to add to their streak. The good news is, we have a feeling the Lightning will have something to say about this.

This will be the second time these two teams have met this season. The first was back in November on the front half of a back-to-back series where the Lightning defeated the Blue Jackets 7-4.

The puck drops at 7:00 p.m. so make sure you are all ready to Be The Thunder once again.

What did you think of tonight’s encounter? Who do you think really had a stand out performance tonight? What are your thoughts on the three brawls that broke out during the game? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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