The Buffalo Sabres had a glorious opportunity on Tuesday night to inch closer to a playoff spot and essentially control their own destiny over the final six games of the regular season, but they struggled to generate offense and fell to the Florida Panthers, 2-1.
Buffalo opened the scoring at 8:58 of the first period as Dylan Cozens netted a power play goal, his 29th of the season, right after Alex Tuch had a goal taken off the board because of an offside.
Florida’s Aaron Ekblad tied the game with a power-play goal right before the end of the first.
After neither team found the back of the net in the second, Matthew Tkachuk potted what stood as the game-winning goal a minute into the final period.
Devon Levi made his second NHL start and stopped 34-of-36 shots.
Buffalo outshot the Panthers 40-36 and Zemgus Girgensons recorded a game-high seven shots on goal.
The Sabres will head to Detroit to take on the Red Wings on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to [email protected].