Brandon Montour scored one goal and assisted on the other two as the Florida Panthers edged the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 on Tuesday night in Sunrise, Fla.
Panthers star winger Matthew Tkachuk returned from a one-game injury absence, producing one goal and one assist.
The Panthers, who have allowed two or fewer goals in 14 straight games, are 12-2-0 during that span. Florida also got one goal from Sam Bennett and 28 saves by Sergei Bobrovsky, who leads the Eastern Conference with 29 victories.
However, Sam Reinhart — who ranks second in the NHL with 39 goals — was held to just one assist. He has gone seven straight games without a goal. Before this, his longest goal drought of the season was four.
The Sabres — who had their season-best three-game win streak snapped — got one goal each from Dylan Cozens and Tage Thompson and 34 saves by Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
Buffalo got on the board first, taking advantage of a hooking penalty drawn by Thompson against Montour. With 9:25 expired in the first period and the power play nearly over, Cozens took a pass from Jordan Greenway and scored from the high slot.
The Panthers tied the score with 12:54 gone in the first on a play created by Montour driving end to end. Nick Cousins earned the primary assist, feeding the puck to Bennett, who scored from the left circle.
Bennett then drew a high-sticking penalty on Jacob Bryson, and that set up a Panthers power-play goal with 4:24 left in the first. That goal, which occurred just 14 seconds into the power play, was credited to Tkachuk, but the puck actually bounced in off the stick of Buffalo defenseman Erik Johnson.
That 2-1 deficit was a bad sign for the Sabres, who dropped to 5-21-2 when trailing after one period.
The Panthers extended their lead to 3-1 on Montour’s 5-on-3 power-play goal with 10:19 left in the third. Montour, with plenty of time and space, blasted a high shot from the point.
Buffalo closed its deficit to 3-2 on Thompson’s goal with 7:16 remaining. After a shot by Rasmus Dahlin, Thompson batted in the rebound.
–Field Level Media
