{{pageModel.leagueAbbr}} {{pageModel.subtitle}} | Las Vegas Review-Journal
National Hockey League
Tampa Bay 4, Buffalo 2
When: 5:00 PM ET, Sunday, April 9, 2017
Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida
Referees: Marc Joannette, Jon McIsaac
Linesmen: Jonny Murray, Tony Sericolo
Attendance: 19092

TAMPA, Fla. -- Brayden Point ended an impressive rookie with his second multi-goal game of the week to lift the Tampa Bay Lighting to a season-closing 4-2 victory against the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday.

Andrei Vasilevskiy closed out the season by picking up his 23rd victory while making 26 saves for Tampa Bay. Braydon Coburn also scored while Victor Hedman had a goal and an assist to finish with a career-high 72 points for the Lightning, second most among NHL defensemen on the season.

Linus Ullmark, making his first appearance of the season, finished with 33 saves for Buffalo. Evander Kane and William Carrier scored for the Sabres.

Point's second of the night came with 1:24 left in the third period as a centering pass deflected off Buffalo's Rasmus Ristolainen and into the net. Hedman added the empty-net goal with one second left in the game.

Despite the win, Tampa Bay missed the playoffs for the first time since 2013 despite finishing with 94 points and closing the season on a 20-6-4 run.

"We played well down the stretch, got a lot of wins and a lot of points, but it still was not good enough," Point said.

While Ullmark was denying some grade A chances for Buffalo early in the game, including two point-blank stops on Jonathan Drouin, the Sabres rewarded their goaltender by grabbing the lead late in the first period as Carrier skated down the right side and sniped a wrist shot from the circle to the top far corner past Vasilevskiy at 13:56.

"(Alex) Nylander made a good play off the boards, we get a 2-on-1 I took a good shot and it just went in," Carrier said.

Tampa Bay drew even early in the second period as Point found inside position at the top of the crease to tap in a pass from Hedman for his 17th goal.

The Lightning went to work on the penalty kill for the first time in the game later in the period and took the lead after some strong work by Vladislav Namestnikov, who created a 2-on-1 and fed Coburn for a tap-in for his second career shorthanded goal to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead at 12:20.

"On the PK sometimes you end up messing around with it, we had a couple of clears we probably should have had," Coburn said. "But Vlady got the puck loose on the bench side there and I saw an opportunity where the (defenseman) got caught in a bad spot, so you just get up on your horse and get going as fast as you can. He sauced a nice pass in there to me and you try not to miss those ones."

In the third, after Ullmark denied Drouin in close on his sixth shot on goal of the game, the Sabres countered the other way and Brian Gionta fed a perfect cross-ice pass to a streaking Kane charging to the post for a backdoor tap-in at 11:17.

"We're down by a goal, we're all professionals and we're paid to do a job regardless of the situation you are in," Kane said. "We knew we had to make a push, we tied up and then it was kind of a bounce that summed up our season."

NOTES: Tampa Bay placed LW Gabriel Dumont on waivers Sunday for the purpose of assigning him to Syracuse of the American Hockey League to join the Crunch for the playoffs. ... The Lightning reassigned RW Michael Bournival and RW Joel Vermin to Syracuse. ... Tampa Bay scratched D Jason Garrison (lower body), C Tyler Johnson (lower body) and C Cedric Paquette (lower body). ... Buffalo scratched RW Kyle Okposo (undisclosed illness), D Taylor Fedun (foot), D Justin Falk, C Sean Malone, LW C.J. Smith, LW Marcus Foligno (knee) and G Anders Nilsson (undisclosed). ... Buffalo completed a league-high 18th set of back-to-back games. ... Buffalo RW Evander Kane and Lightning D Victor Hedman each recorded their 300th career point. ... Tampa Bay closed the season on a 20-6-4 run in the final 30 games.
Top Game Performances
 
Buffalo   Tampa Bay
William Carrier 1 Points Brayden Point 3
William Carrier 1 Goals Brayden Point 2
Zach Bogosian 1 Assists Anton Stralman 2
N/A Power Play Goals N/A
N/A Short Handed Goals Braydon Coburn 1
Linus Ullmark .917 Save Percentage Andrei Vasilevskiy .929
Linus Ullmark 33 Saves Andrei Vasilevskiy 26
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Shots Goals Power Play Penalty Kill Penalty Mins Face Offs Won
Buffalo 28 2 0-1 3-3 6 33
Tampa Bay 37 4 0-3 1-1 2 33