The Tampa Bay Lightning (7-5-2) knocked off the Buffalo Sabres (9-5-2) 3-2 on Friday afternoon in Stockholm, Sweden. It was the first game in two days between the two teams in Sweden as part of the NHL's Global Series.
The Lightning struck first in this game, as they built a 2-0 first period lead over the Sabres thanks to goals from Nikita Kucherov and a power play goal from Alex Killorn. In the second period Sam Reinhart scored his sixth goal of the season to cut the lead to 2-1, but the Lightning answered in the third period with a goal from Yanni Gourde. Though Reinhart added a second goal late in the third period to cut the Lightning lead to 3=2, that would be as close as Buffalo would get as the Lightning hung onto a 3-2 win.
Andrei Vasilveskiy got the saves when he needed to for Tampa Bay, finishing with 20 saves on 22 shots. Swedish native Linus Ullmark went 31-for-34 in the losing effort.
The two teams meet in the second game of the NHL Global Series on Saturday afternoon - puck drop is scheduled for 1 PM, and pregame coverage begins at 12:30 on News Radio WFLA.