Ryan O’Reilly scores the lone Buffalo goal on a power play in the final minute of the first period.
By Joe Yerdon / NHL.com Correspondent
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov scored in the shootout, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made saves on the two shooters he faced in the tiebreaker to help the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 2-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Saturday.
Vasilevskiy made 31 saves through overtime, and then stopped Sam Reinhart and Jack Eichel in the shootout to lift the Lightning to their third win in the past four games.
The Lightning (30-26-8) are three points behind the New York Islanders for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Eastern Conference. The Sabres (27-26-12) have lost five of the past six.
Lightning center Tyler Johnson scored at 2:37 of the second period to tie it 1-1. After Johnson won a faceoff in the Sabres zone, Kucherov passed to the left point for defenseman Victor Hedman, who found Johnson to the right of the net for a redirection past goalie Robin Lehner.
Kucherov has seven goals and seven assists during a six-game point streak. Hedman has two goals and five assists during a five-game point streak.
Ryan O’Reilly gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal with 12 seconds left in the first period. Rasmus Ristolainen passed to O’Reilly in the right faceoff circle, and he took a one-timer that beat Vasilevskiy for his 15th goal.
Eichel got an assist on the goal to extend his point streak to nine games (two goals, 10 assists).
Sabres defenseman Dmitry Kulikov left the game after he sustained an upper-body injury. Kulikov was injured in a collision behind the Buffalo net at 14:23 and was slow to get up before he headed to the bench.
Hilton’s Ryan Callahan did not play for the Lightning as he is out for the remainder of the season with an injury.