TAMPA – Ilya Lyubushkin, meet Jason Pominville. Buffalo Sabres, maybe meet a spot in the playoffs.
The Sabres had a wild night here Thursday with their 6-5 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Lightning but can't rest on any sort of laurels over that one.
The Sabres pulled out a 6-5 victory on Ilya Lyubushkin's short-handed breakaway goal at 1:41 of OT – just Buffalo's second win in the last 13 meetings against the three-time defending Eastern Conference champions.
They meet the Florida Panthers Friday night at 7 in FLA Live Arena and a lot is at stake: A regulation win over Florida would put Buffalo into a wild-card playoff spot on the basis of tiebreakers – the latest into a season the Sabres would be above the playoff cut line since March 27, 2012.
The Sabres got to this point thanks to their wild game against the Lightning, who rallied to force overtime by overcoming deficits of 4-2 and 5-3. But while killing a delay of game penalty on Henri Jokiharju, Lyubushkin got the puck from Steven Stamkos and sped down the ice to beat Andrei Vasilevskiy with a laser of a wrist shot to the top corner.
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It made Lyubushkin the first Sabre in franchise history to score a short-handed goal in overtime in the regular season. The only other time Buffalo won a game with an OT shortie was on Pominville's iconic goal that eliminated Ottawa in Game 5 of the 2006 Eastern Conference semifinals.
And there's more: According to OptaStats (the former STATS Inc.), Lyubushkin is just the second NHL defenseman to score an unassisted short-handed goal in overtime (since goals by strength were first tracked in 1933-34). The other was Ott Heller for the New York Rangers on Feb. 18, 1937. The NHL suspended regular season overtime due to World War II in 1942 and did not resume it until 1983.
The Sabres have now won on the road at both Colorado and Tampa Bay, the two conference champions who battled for the Stanley Cup last June. Buffalo has points in 17 of its last 20 road games (15-3-2), and is 18-8-2 on the road overall. The team's 38 road points are seventh in the NHL.
One quibble about the Lyubushkin goal in the Buffalo locker room? It was on the road so his personal goal song has yet to be played in KeyBank Center. Lyubushkin's choice: "I'm a Gummy Bear", a German ditty that has earned billions of views on YouTube since its 2007 release.
Jeff Skinner was seen walking down the hallway near the locker room en route to the arena exit laughing as he held his phone up with the song playing.
Said Tage Thompson: "It would have been nice to get that one at home, hear his song play. The fans would love that."
Lyubushkin OT winner with Gummy Bear Goal Song pic.twitter.com/NYYCrbEab5
— Ben Mathewson (@Ben_Mathewson) February 24, 2023
As for the playoff race, we won't hear from the Sabres today because they have no morning skate. Coach Don Granato will brief reporters around 5:30. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is expected to start in goal after Eric Comrie got the win against Tampa, in large part because of four saves he made on the OT power play.
A regulation win for the Sabres would give them 64 points and move them into a tie with both Florida and Detroit while allowing them to jump over idle Pittsburgh. Buffalo has not swept a two-game trip to Florida since Nov. 10-12, 2016.
The Sabres would be ahead of the Panthers on points percentage because they would still have four games in hand. Buffalo would be listed ahead of idle Detroit on the third tiebreaker of regulation plus overtime wins. The teams would be even in games played and regulation wins.
Buffalo has lost six straight games to Florida and has been outscored, 30-15, in them. The Panthers already own two wins this season in KeyBank Center, and the Sabres are 1-6-2 in their last nine games in Sunrise.
