Kucherov has 4 points, Lightning rally late for OT win against Sabres

TAMPA -- Nikita Kucherov had a goal and three assists, including the game-winning feed to Jake Guentzel with 15 seconds remaining in overtime, and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied late for a 4-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres at Benchmark International Arena on Tuesday.

Guentzel retrieved a stretch pass from Kucherov and scored on the breakaway, beating Sabres goalie Colten Ellis five-hole. It came after Darren Raddysh tied it with 26 seconds left in the third period on a slap shot from the point off a pass from Kucherov with Andrei Vasilevskiy pulled for the extra skater.

"[Kucherov] has got eyes in the back of his head," Guentzel said. "You know it's coming. Our group stuck with it. We were not at our best, but we just kept pushing."

Kucherov had his second straight four-point game and extended his point streak to nine games (six goals, 17 assists) for the Lightning (36-14-4), who have won 18 of 20 (18-1-1). Vasilevskiy made 23 saves.

Tampa Bay was playing for the first time since a 6-5 shootout win over the Boston Bruins in the 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, when it overcame a 5-1 deficit.

"We believe that we're never out of the game. It was evident the last two games," said Raddysh, who extended his goal streak to five games (five goals). "We come back down from four and we come back tonight. Sunday was something I think a lot of guys are going to remember for the rest of their lives. But we had to get ready and it was business as usual today."

Mattias Samuelsson scored twice, and Josh Doan also scored for the Sabres (32-18-6), who had won six of seven (6-1-0), including a 5-3 victory at the Florida Panthers on Monday. Ellis made 31 saves.

"It's big to get a point, obviously you want to get two," Ellis said. "But the division is so tight, and the East is so tight, so you take every point you can get. I thought our game was good all around. We came down on this trip and got three out of four points. We'll go back home on Thursday and get one last one before the (Olympic) break."

Kucherov gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 10:24 of the first period, scoring on a shot from the low slot off a pass from Guentzel after he intercepted a clearing attempt from Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.

Samuelsson tied it 1-1 at 16:53 with a sharp-angle wrist shot from the bottom of the left circle that beat Vasilevskiy to the far post.

"Heck of an effort, you could see that back to back ... we didn't quite have the energy, but we found sound energy late," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "Big push in the third period and a great power-play goal. We had a couple of great opportunities ... we had [Dahlin] and [Tage Thompson] walking it in overtime to win it for us, but, you know, it didn't hit the mark."

Samuelsson scored again to give Buffalo a 2-1 lead at 4:08 of the third period with a snap shot from above the hash marks that beat Vasilevskiy to the corner glove side.

"We'll take the three points, but we let that fourth one slip away tonight," Samuelsson said. "We've got to find a way to kill the rest of that clock. We had a lot of chances too in overtime that we didn't capitalize on, but yeah, we'll take the three points."

Oliver Bjorkstrand’s power-play goal tied it 2-2 at 8:53 when he followed up an initial shot from Raddysh.

"He's been great,” Raddysh said of Bjorkstrand’s efforts on the power play. “He's been feeling it when (Brayden) Point wasn't there.”

Doan scored on the power play to put the Sabres back ahead 3-2 at 14:53 on a deflection from the crease after Thompson sent the puck to the net.

"That was probably an entertaining hockey game for most," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "You know the coaches will pick it apart, but that was two, what I consider, really good teams that went at it and it's probably fitting that it went to overtime."

NOTES: Kucherov has 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) during a five-game multipoint streak. He has 31 multipoint games this season. … Samuelsson has 11 points (three goals, eight assists) over his past 10 games. ... Raddysh became the sixth defenseman in the past 25 years to record a five-game goal streak, joining Mike Green (eight games in 2008-09), Jakob Chychrun (five games in 2025-26), Dahlin (five games in 2022-23), Cale Makar (five games in 2021-22) and Roman Josi (five games in 2019-20). … Sabres defenseman Jacob Bryson returned to the lineup after missing the past five games. He had a shot on goal in 11:01 of ice time.