Sabres playoff hopes fade in Florida

DAWN, Fla. (AP)-- Matthew Tkachuk snapped a tie in the opening minute of the third period, and the Florida Panthers topped the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 on Tuesday night for their 4th consecutive success.

It's the longest win streak of the season for the Panthers (40-31-7), who moved into a tie with the New York Islanders for the top area in the Eastern Conference wild-card standings. Florida owns the very first tiebreaker due to the fact that of its policy wins. The Sabres (37-32-7) are six points behind the Panthers and Islanders. The Sabres have actually six video games left.

Dylan Cozens scored for Buffalo, which had won four of five. Devon Levi, a seventh-round choice by Florida who was traded to Buffalo in 2021, made 34 conserves in his very first loss in two NHL starts.

" It was a tight game and we had chances to convert all the way to the end," Buffalo coach Don Granato said. "It didn't happen, so certainly there's some frustration and stress associated with that."

Cozens scored on a Buffalo power play 8:58 into the first duration. It was his 29th goal of the season.

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Aaron Ekblad also scored for Florida, and Alex Lyon made 39 conserves for his 4th straight win.

Pittsburgh is one point behind Florida and New York with four video games left for each team.

" I think it is just much easier playing with the lead so getting that 2nd objective, offering ourselves a lead was substantial for us," Tkachuk said. We capitalized on strong, hard plays in the third and Lyon made some big conserves."

Ekblad connected it with a power-play goal with 4:13 staying in the very first. Ekblad's shot clipped the objective cage and deflected off Levi on its way to the back of the web.

After a scoreless 2nd, Tkachuk deflected in a Brandon Montour shot from inside the blue line 59 seconds into the third.

Both groups had tension on them and you might feel it in how they moved the puck," Florida coach Paul Maurice said. "You had the third- and fifth-highest scoring teams in the league playing goalies who are third and fourth on their depth charts and two of the finest players on the ice were the goalies.

WORTH NOTING

With his assist on Cozens' goal, Tage Thompson became the 10th gamer in Sabres history to strike 90 points in a single season. He is the very first to achieve the feat given that Daniel Briere had 95 points during the 2006-07 season. … … Florida was again without the services of G Sergei Bobrovsky (health problem) and C Sam Bennett (lower-body injury). Bobrovsky has actually missed the previous 4 video games for Florida; Bennett the previous 8.

UP NEXT

Sabres check out the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night.