SI:AM | Sabres Beat Lightning in the Most Eventful NHL Game in Decades

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. We all knew it was coming, but it’s still nuts to see how much money the Dolphins are eating by releasing Tua Tagovailoa.

In today’s SI:AM:
📝 NFL free agency tracker
🏈 Breer on free agency
🐮 Texas wins SEC women’s tourney

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Wild game in Buffalo

The Sabres and Lightning played one of the wildest hockey games you’ll ever see on Sunday night, combining for 15 goals and 102 penalty minutes as Buffalo won, 8–7. But that’s just the beginning.

Tensions were high right from the opening faceoff. Tampa Bay and Buffalo entered the game tied atop the Atlantic Division and were playing each other for the second time in eight days. The previous meeting, on Feb. 28, was also a chippy affair, as evidenced by the fact that Lightning defenseman Charle-Edouard D’Astous got a roughing penalty for going after the Sabres’ Jack Quinn as the final horn sounded on a 6–2 Buffalo win. There was no love lost in Sunday’s rematch: The first fight occurred less than five minutes into the game. The first period had plenty of post-whistle scrums but very little offense, and the Sabres took a 1–0 lead into the intermission.

Things really got interesting in the second period, though. There were not one but two fights right at the period’s opening faceoff. There were also a combined seven goals, as Buffalo stretched its lead to 4–1 before Tampa Bay came back to tie it at 4–4. The Lightning then scored two more to open the third period, but the Sabres surged back and won on Josh Doan’s power-play goal with 4:19 left to play.

It was the first NHL game since 1993 to feature at least 15 goals and 28 penalties. It was also the first game since 1992 in which both teams combined to score at least seven goals in multiple periods.

“That’s going to be one we’re going to remember for a while,” Sabres right wing Alex Tuch said. “It was a battle last game. It was an absolute battle this game. We’re going to continue to see each other down the stretch here. That’s the type of effort we’re going to need, though. That’s the type of confidence we have. We know we can come back from games like that. Just really proud of our group. On to the next now.”

It would have been one of the most exciting games of the season regardless of the circumstances, but it was especially thrilling given the stakes. The Sabres are in the midst of their best season in more than a decade and have now surged into first place in the Atlantic Division. Buffalo has won seven games in a row, while Tampa Bay has lost five of its last six. The Sabres haven’t been in sole possession of first place this late in the season since they won the Northeast Division in the 2009–10 season.

It’s been a rough stretch for the Sabres since then. Their last playoff appearance came in 2011, and they’ve spent the last decade-plus as one of the worst teams in the NHL. From the start of the ’11–12 season through the end of last season, the Sabres won only 424 games, by far the fewest in the NHL over that span (excluding teams that did not play in all of those seasons). But they’ve had a remarkable turnaround this season. Lindy Ruff, who coached the Sabres for 14 seasons during their most successful period, is back in charge and has them looking like a real contender in the East. The city of Buffalo has bought in, too. The team’s last nine home games have all been sellouts.

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The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:
5. Sam Antonacci’s hustle to score for Italy against Great Britain on a triple and a throwing error.
4. Kael Combs’s game-tying three-pointer for Iowa with two seconds left to force overtime against Nebraska. (The Huskers went on to win and earn one of four byes to the quarterfinals of this week’s Big Ten men’s basketball tournament.)
3. Madelyn Bragg’s buzzer beater to win it for Colorado State against Grand Canyon in the Mountain West women’s quarterfinals. The Rams will face UNLV tonight in the semis.
2. This unbelievable shot by Canada’s Jon Thurston in the Paralympic wheelchair curling competition.
1. The wild finish to the Los Angeles Marathon. American Nathan Martin came from behind to beat Kenya’s Michael Kimani in a photo finish. Kimani made a wrong turn near the finish line, which helped Martin close the gap.