Buffalo won its fourth game in the last five attempts, the latest a 4-2 victory over Florida on Monday night. The Sabres raced out to a 3-0 lead early in the second period and never let up, two of those coming off of power plays. Both teams had 32 shots on goal and the Panthers had a 33-23 edge on faceoffs won. Neither team will be headed to the postseason -- after Monday night's action, Florida finds themselves seven points behind the second seed in the Wild Card and Buffalo is now one point behind that.
Panthers fall too far behind early
Florida wasn't able to get on the scoreboard until 10:19 into the second period, but they were already down 3-0 at that point.
Center Jonathan Marchessault (49 pts) scored his 29th goal of the season, and he's now recorded six goals in the last three games. The Panthers answered right back to Buffalo's fourth goal later in the period. Left wing Jonathan Huberdeau (23 pts) delivered his eighth goal of the season roughly a minute after the Sabres scored.
Without any scoring in the final period, Buffalo held on to their 4-2 lead. The Panthers have now lost three of their last five games. Goalie James Reimer (16-15-5) took the loss and was substituted after getting just 18-of-22 save attempts.
Longtime player gets goal in 1,000 game for Sabres
Right wing Brian Gionta (33 pts) is currently in his 13th season in the NHL and third with Buffalo.
He's reached a milestone by playing in 1,000 games on Monday night, and he celebrated by recording his 15th goal of the season just 1:25 into the second period. That was the eventual game-winner for the Sabres as they were up 3-0 at that point and never looked back.
Prior to that, Ryan O'Reilly (51 pts) and Zach Bogosian (10 pts) punched in their 19th and second goals of the season, respectively.
The only other time Bogosian put in a goal this season was back on January 21st against Montreal. Left wing Marcus Foligno (23 pts) finished the scoring for the Sabres later in the second period by putting in his 13th goal.
