TAMPA, Fla. — Ben Bishop made 24 saves in his return after missing nine games with a lower-body injury, Ondrej Palat had two goals and an assist, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 on Thursday night.
Nikita Kucherov and Anton Stralman also scored for Tampa Bay, which stopped a four-game losing streak. Lightning centre Brian Boyle (lower body, four games) and defenceman Braydon Coburn (upper body, two games) also came back from injuries.
Bishop, 10-0-1 lifetime against Buffalo, turned aside left and right circle shots by Jack Eichel during the second period. Andrei Vasilevskiy went 3-5-1 over nine starts in place of Bishop, who is a potential free agent after the season.
The Sabres, bidding for their first five-game point streak (3-1-1) since March 2012, got goals from Matt Moulson and Evander Kane. Anders Nilsson stopped 25 shots in his second consecutive start in place of Robin Lehner, who is ill.
After Palat scored on the rebound from slot early in the second, Kucherov made it 3-1 from the low left circle off a nifty pass across the slot by Victor Hedman midway through the period.
Kane’s goal off Eichel’s assist got Buffalo within 3-2 with 9 1/2 minutes left.
Stralman got a late empty-net power-play goal.
Moulson and Palat, during a 5-on-3 power play, both had early first-period goals.
Palat had a short-handed breakaway shot in the third stopped by Nilsson.
NOTES: Hedman has 31 assists this season. … Moulson stopped an 11-game goal drought. … Tampa Bay RW Ryan Callahan, sidelined for the third time since off-season hip surgery, missed his second straight game.
UP NEXT
Sabres: Complete a quick two-game road trip Friday night at Carolina.
Lightning: Will hold a pregame ceremony before playing Columbus on Friday night to retire Martin St. Louis’ uniform No. 26. "I’m definitely nervous," St. Louis said. "I think a lot of emotions are going to come out when it happens." St. Louis was a key member of Tampa Bay’s Stanley Cup 2004 championship team.
