Buffalo Sabres forward Tage Thompson is excited about what is at stake over the team’s final 23 games of the regular season.
The Sabres will continue their journey on Saturday when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“We have something really good going here, and I think every point — especially at this point in the season, going forward — is crucial for us,” Thompson said. “Especially (against) teams in the East.”
Buffalo extended its season-best road point streak to eight games (7-0-1) with a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Friday.
It’s the first streak of that length since the 2006-07 team accomplished the feat en route to earning 10 straight road victories to start the season.
The Sabres have 74 points on the season, third in the Eastern Conference.
Alex Tuch notched his 23rd goal of the season on Friday, second-most on the club, while Beck Malenstyn added his fifth.
“Every game’s a playoff game from here on out,” said forward Peyton Krebs, who recorded what proved to be the game-winning goal by scoring into an empty net with 1:17 remaining.
“We need the wins, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Forward Zach Benson (upper body) has not played since crashing into the boards against Florida on Feb. 2, and he recently battled a viral illness.
Benson, however, joined the team on the road and could skate against the Lightning, who will be playing their third game in four days.
“He was good enough that we got him down here last night,” said coach Lindy Ruff of Benson.
With coach Jon Cooper absent for a second consecutive match following the death of his father, the Lightning displayed both their resilience and offensive prowess on Thursday against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Playing their first game following the Winter Olympics break, the Hurricanes burst out to a three-goal advantage just 6:41 into the matchup of Eastern Conference top squads.
However, Brandon Hagel notched his 28th goal of the season, while Nikita Kucherov and Dominic James also scored.
Brayden Point’s 14th goal of the season squared it at 4-4 before Carolina’s Sebastian Aho scored on the power play for the only goal of the third period.
“We spent a lot of energy trying to come back from 3-0 … it’s never a good recipe,” said Lightning assistant coach Rob Zettler, who oversees the defense.
“We’re started to clean it up in the second half of the first period. … We just needed a kill to keep it alive and see if we could get some points out of a back-to-back.”
That did not happen, though, as the Lightning saw their six-game winning streak come to a halt.
Zettler, a former defenseman, said the roster’s variety helps.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that we call ‘gamers,’ and we’ve got a lot of skill on our team,” he said. “Guys are able to make plays, and we’re dangerous. We average almost four goals a game.”
Winners of 10 consecutive on home ice, Tampa Bay will start play Saturday with Kucherov riding a 12-game point streak (eight goals, 20 assists).
Jake Guentzel had three assists to boost his point total to 63, second only to Kucherov’s 95.
