Sabres Defeat Lightning 4-2 To Tighten Atlantic Division Race. Buffalo Snapped

Sabres Edge Lightning 4-2, Tie for Atlantic Division Lead

The Buffalo Sabres rebounded from their recent struggles with a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night at KeyBank Center , pulling into a tie for first place in the Atlantic Division with 102 points each .

Jason Zucker had a goal and an assist for the Buffalo Sabres , with his go-ahead goal coming at 7:38 of the second period when he deflected Bowen Byram's one-timer from the right point over Andrei Vasilevskiy's glove to make it 3-2 . Jack Quinn scored an empty-net goal at 18:06 of the third period for the 4-2 final .

Alex Tuch and Josh Norris also scored for the Sabres (47-23-8), who had lost two straight games . Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 23 saves to earn the victory.

For Tampa Bay, Nikita Kucherov scored his 400th NHL goal and Jake Guentzel had a goal and an assist . Vasilevskiy made 25 saves for the Lightning (48-23-6) .

Division Race Intensifies

The victory gives Buffalo 102 points, tying the Lightning atop the division and putting them two ahead of idle Montreal entering the final 10 days of the season . However, Tampa Bay has played one fewer game than Buffalo and also holds the tiebreaker .

Buffalo concludes its four-game season series against Tampa Bay at 3-0-1 , giving the Sabres the season series advantage.

Key Game Details

Luukkonen stopped 23 shots to improve to 10-2-1 in his past 14 appearances . The game marked Buffalo's 16th consecutive sellout and was the team's first home game since officially clinching their first playoff berth since 2011 on Saturday .

Kucherov became the 16th active player to score 400 goals, and the ninth to reach the mark in fewer than 900 games (874) . Lightning forward Pontus Holmberg left the game in the third period after he was hit awkwardly into the boards , with coach Jon Cooper saying Holmberg is "not good" .

What's Next

The Sabres visit the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m.

The Lightning will finish their back-to-back Tuesday when they play the Ottawa Senators .