Game

Sabres at Lightning

Sabres 6, Lightning 2 · first star Rasmus Dahlin (1 G, 2 A).

2025-26 regular season · Preseason. The 2026-27 regular season starts Sep 29. Data as of September 28, 2026, source NHL.

Buffalo Sabres 6 at Tampa Bay Lightning 2

Sabres BUF

6 FINAL 2

Lightning TBL

Saturday, February 28, 2026 · 7:00 PM ET · Benchmark International Arena, Tampa

Line score by period
Team	1	2	3	T	SOG
Sabres	4	1	1	6	35
Lightning	0	1	1	2	38

Shot chart

Every shot attempt, computed from the league's play-by-play coordinates. Sabres attack left, Lightning attack right, all periods folded onto one rink. Attempts are plotted where the league recorded them, so the 2 marks in a team's own end are attempts logged from there: empty-net shots, long dumps on the net. Boxscore shots on goal: BUF 35, TBL 38.

BUF in red TBL in blue goal shot on goal missed blocked Sabres 35 shots on goal (6 goals, 15 missed, 5 blocked) attacking left; Lightning 38 shots on goal (2 goals, 13 missed, 14 blocked) attacking right.

Shots by period

Shots on goal, goals and attempts by period
Period	BUF SOG	BUF G	BUF ATT	TBL SOG	TBL G	TBL ATT
1st	10	4	20	14	0	25
2nd	20	1	27	12	1	20
3rd	5	1	8	12	1	20
Total	35	6	55	38	2	65

Shots by situation

Shots on goal and goals by strength of the shooting team
Situation	BUF SOG	BUF G	TBL SOG	TBL G
Even strength	27	5	33	2
Power play	7	1	4	0
Short-handed	1	0	1	0

Attempt share by period

Lightning took 54.2% of the shot attempts, and 59.1% of the 88 attempts taken at 5-on-5. An attempt is a goal, a shot on goal, a miss or a blocked shot; CF% is the share of them belonging to the Lightning and FF% their share of the ones that were not blocked, so the Sabres hold the remainder. All situations unless the 5-on-5 figure is named. All 32 teams

Attempt share by period, all situations, Sabres at Lightning
Period	TBL CF%	TBL FF%
1st	55.6	54.3
2nd	42.5	36.6
3rd	71.4	68.0
Game	54.2	50.5

Team totals only: per-player on-ice numbers need shift data, which this source does not publish.

Scoring summary

1st period

05:25 Rasmus Dahlin (12) Owen Power (14) · wrist 1–0
06:15 Josh Norris (7) Josh Doan (22), Zach Metsa (2) · wrist 2–0
08:18 Josh Norris (8) Bowen Byram (21), Zach Benson (20) · tip-in 3–0
15:06 Tage Thompson (32) Peyton Krebs (20), Rasmus Dahlin (38) · wrist 4–0

2nd period

01:54 Zach Metsa (2) Unassisted · wrist 5–0
16:03 Dominic James (7) Oliver Bjorkstrand (18), Victor Hedman (14) · wrist 5–1

3rd period

03:43 Alex Tuch (24) PP Rasmus Dahlin (39), Jack Quinn (26) · wrist 6–1
05:27 Victor Hedman (1) Darren Raddysh (37) · slap 6–2

Three stars

Rasmus Dahlin BUF · D #26 · 1 G, 2 A
Josh Norris BUF · C #9 · 2 G, 0 A
Zach Metsa BUF · D #73 · 1 G, 1 A

Penalties

Penalties
Period	Time	Team	Player	Infraction	Min	Drawn by
1st	10:44	BUF	Zach Benson	cross checking	2	Oliver Bjorkstrand
2nd	05:47	TBL	Brayden Point	slashing	2	Rasmus Dahlin
2nd	05:47	BUF	Rasmus Dahlin	cross checking	2	Brayden Point
2nd	10:26	TBL	Emil Lilleberg	roughing	2	Tage Thompson
2nd	12:10	TBL	Jake Guentzel	delaying game puck over glass	2	—
2nd	16:03	TBL	Victor Hedman	roughing	2	Mattias Samuelsson
2nd	16:03	BUF	Mattias Samuelsson	roughing	2	Victor Hedman
3rd	01:28	BUF	Alex Tuch	roughing	2	Yanni Gourde
3rd	01:28	TBL	Charle-Edouard D'Astous	roughing	2	Alex Tuch
3rd	01:28	BUF	Michael Kesselring	cross checking	2	Yanni Gourde
3rd	02:02	TBL	Jake Guentzel	abuse of officials	2	—
3rd	02:02	TBL	Jake Guentzel	abusive language	10	—
3rd	06:23	TBL	Darren Raddysh	cross checking	2	Beck Malenstyn
3rd	12:48	TBL	Anthony Cirelli	interference	2	Rasmus Dahlin
3rd	17:12	BUF	Michael Kesselring	cross checking	2	Dominic James
3rd	20:00	TBL	Charle-Edouard D'Astous	roughing	2	Peyton Krebs

Boxscore

Buffalo Sabres

Sabres skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Rasmus Dahlin #26	D	1	2	3	+2	2	0	0	2	0.0	24:32
Josh Norris #9	C	2	0	2	+2	2	0	0	0	43.8	15:03
Zach Metsa #73	D	1	1	2	+2	3	0	2	0	0.0	13:08
Tage Thompson #72	C	1	0	1	-1	6	0	0	0	75.0	16:00
Alex Tuch #89	R	1	0	1	-1	5	1	0	2	0.0	18:15
Peyton Krebs #19	C	0	1	1	-1	0	5	0	0	33.3	10:59
Zach Benson #6	L	0	1	1	+1	0	2	0	2	100.0	13:39
Jack Quinn #22	R	0	1	1	+2	2	1	0	0	0.0	14:21
Josh Doan #91	R	0	1	1	+2	2	1	1	0	0.0	16:08
Bowen Byram #4	D	0	1	1	+2	4	0	2	0	0.0	22:45
Owen Power #25	D	0	1	1	+2	4	0	0	0	0.0	19:59
Noah Ostlund #86	C	0	0	0	+1	0	1	2	0	0.0	14:46
Ryan McLeod #71	C	0	0	0	+1	2	0	1	0	47.6	20:21
Tyson Kozak #48	C	0	0	0	+1	0	0	1	0	38.5	13:04
Beck Malenstyn #29	L	0	0	0	0	1	4	2	0	0.0	12:26
Jason Zucker #17	L	0	0	0	+2	1	0	1	0	100.0	12:05
Mattias Samuelsson #23	D	0	0	0	-1	1	1	2	2	0.0	24:08
Michael Kesselring #8	D	0	0	0	-1	0	0	0	4	0.0	08:40

Sabres goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen #1	W	38	36	2	.947	31/33	4/4	59:41

Tampa Bay Lightning

Lightning skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Victor Hedman #77	D	1	1	2	+1	2	1	1	2	0.0	16:53
Dominic James #17	C	1	0	1	0	1	2	0	0	66.7	13:06
Oliver Bjorkstrand #22	R	0	1	1	-1	4	2	0	0	0.0	16:24
Darren Raddysh #43	D	0	1	1	+1	3	1	0	2	0.0	21:18
Anthony Cirelli #71	C	0	0	0	-2	1	2	0	2	66.7	14:01
Brayden Point #21	C	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	56.2	17:52
Gage Goncalves #93	C	0	0	0	-1	2	3	0	0	0.0	08:17
Jake Guentzel #59	C	0	0	0	-1	3	0	0	14	50.0	13:02
Yanni Gourde #37	C	0	0	0	-1	1	5	0	0	31.2	15:59
Zemgus Girgensons #28	C	0	0	0	-1	3	3	0	0	0.0	15:03
Brandon Hagel #38	L	0	0	0	-1	8	0	1	0	0.0	21:05
Nikita Kucherov #86	R	0	0	0	-1	4	0	0	0	0.0	20:11
Pontus Holmberg #29	R	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0.0	13:52
Charle-Edouard D'Astous #51	D	0	0	0	-2	0	3	0	4	0.0	15:50
Emil Lilleberg #78	D	0	0	0	-1	3	3	0	2	0.0	16:45
Erik Cernak #81	D	0	0	0	-1	0	1	1	0	0.0	14:39
J.J. Moser #90	D	0	0	0	-1	2	1	1	0	0.0	15:46
Ryan McDonagh #27	D	0	0	0	-3	0	0	0	0	0.0	16:16

Lightning goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Andrei Vasilevskiy #88	L	14	9	5	.643	9/14	0/0	21:54
Jonas Johansson #31	—	21	20	1	.952	13/13	6/7	38:06

SOG shots on goal · BLK blocked shots · FO% faceoff win percentage · EV / PP saves over shots by strength. Skaters sorted by points, then goals.

Source NHL (boxscore, play-by-play, game summary). Shot locations are the league's tracked coordinates; the chart and the situation tables are computed by Play-Pause Hockey. Data as of 2026-09-28.