February 28, 2026; Tampa, Florida, USA; Buffalo Sabers forward Payton Krebs (19), forward Alex Turk (89) and Tampa Bay Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli (71) battle for the puck in the first period at Benchmark International Arena. Mandatory Credit: Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images Josh Norris scored twice as Buffalo scored four times in the first period and the Sabers easily won their third straight loss since the Winter Olympics break with a 6-2 rout of the host Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.
The away team’s win extended their road point streak to a season-high nine games (8-0-1). The Sabers will play six of their next seven contests on home ice.
Rasmus Dahlin hit the net and had two assists, while Zach Metsa had a goal and an assist. Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch also scored, while goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 36 saves.
After missing four games with an upper-body injury, Zach Benson returned and contributed an assist as the Sabers finished 4-1-1 in the shortened February schedule due to the Olympics in Italy.
Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman scored one goal and recorded an assist, and Dominic James scored. However, both their 10-game winning streak at home and Nikita Kucherov’s league-high scoring streak of 12 games ended.
Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy gave up five goals on 14 shots in 21 minutes and 54 seconds of ice time. Jonas Johansson stopped 20 of 21 relief pitches.
The Sabers, who lost 4-3 to the Lightning on Jake Guenzel’s overtime goal on Feb. 3, scored twice in 50 seconds in the rematch after beating the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Friday.
Dahlin slid left-to-right through the slot and whistled past Vasilevskiy at 5:25 of the opening period. Before the visiting celebrations could end, Norris swooped in from the right and beat the netminder between the pads for a 2-0 lead.
At 8:16 on Buffalo’s fifth shot, Norris stunned the Atlantic Division-leading Lightning again by redirecting Bowen Byram’s shot past two Lightning defenders and Vasilevskiy for his second tally.
Thompson made a deft move to score the club’s fourth goal with less than five minutes remaining. The Team USA gold medalist extended her scoring streak to seven games. This is his third consecutive scorer so far.
In the second, an early Metsa goal put Vasilevskiy out of the game, but James got the Lightning on the board at 16:03.
Shortly after Guentzel was ejected for game misconduct and an unsportsmanlike penalty 2:02 into the game, Tuch hit the net at 3:53. Hedman scored first at the final marker at 5:27.
–Field level media
