We can finally talk about a Sabres streak that isn't a losing streak or a winless streak. The Sabres played well enough to win in their 4-2 win over the Lightning in Tampa Bay. It's amazing how sometimes things start clicking, of course that could have had something to do with the opponent. Tampa Bay is in last place in the Eastern Conference and really seem to struggle despite having three really talented high priced players.
The Boys from Buffalo were led by the line of Hecht-Pomminville-MacArthur, they accounted for the first two goals and the first goal was a pretty one. It was the perfect example of taking advantage of a situation. Jochen Hecht, who may be the best all around player on the team, held onto the puck while the Lightning defenseman and forward converged on him, he than fed a pass to Pommer who easily slid it across ice to C-Mac to bury in the empty net. Later in the first period that line would strike again on a play that all the Lightning backed off of C-Mac who skated into the slot and dropped a pass to Pommer who beat Holmqvist with a wrist shot.
Derek Roy and Drew Stafford continued to stay hot both scoring a goal in the second period. The Stafford goal was initially given to Toni Lydman but was later changed and given to Staff. The Sabres went out to a 4-0 lead and than did what any good team would do on the road and tried to hang on, it worked this time but it won't work all the time.
It was the second period where they put the game away but it was the first period where the game was won. The first period was pretty evenly played but Tampa Bay put on a lot of early pressure and Ryan Miller made some big saves. He even made a save on a 2-on-1 although it was Andre Roy shooting instead of one of the big three. After the initial onslaught by Tampa Jochen Hecht made a great play to take advantage of bad coverage by Tampa and the Sabres went ahead. It was at that point the Sabres really had the confidence to win the hockey game.
The Sabres will be right back in action tonight in Sunrise Florida against the Florida Panthers. The gametime will be 7:30 p.m. and they are back on MSG with RJ who returns from vacation.