TAMPA BAY, Fla – Monday night at the AMALIE Arena, the Tampa Bay Lightning faced the Buffalo Sabres in the Sabres last game of the 2023-24 season. Despite Buffalo taking a 4-2 win, it was also the last game for Sabres Head Coach Don Granato, Assistant Coach Jason Christie, and Video Coordinator Matt Smith, who were all relieved of their duties the following morning. Buffalo finished sixth in the Atlantic Division and has missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for 13 straight seasons.
Buffalo’s Dylan Cozens opened the scoring at the 1:36 mark of the first period, scoring his first tally of the night on a rebound shot from Jack Quinn. Tampa Bay evened things up in the second period when Steven Stamkos netted his 40th goal on the season at the 2:27 mark, on a feed from Nikita Kucherov, for his 99th assist of the season. Less than three minutes later, Cozens scored his second of the night with a shorthanded goal setup by Jordan Greenway. Greenway buried the puck past Andrei Vasilevski at the 16:13 mark to put Buffalo up 3-1 headed into the third period.
Erik Cernak scored for Tampa at the 9:39 mark of the third period, but Buffalo answered right back with a goal from Zach Benson on a backdoor pass from Quinn 15 seconds later. The Sabres netminder Eric Comrie was embraced by his teammates for his first win since October 21st, and to end the Sabres season with a victory.
Check out this photo gallery from Inside The Rink’s Andrew Fielder, for highlights from the game.
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