TBL-BUF

BUFFALO -- Carter Hutton made 29 saves for the Buffalo Sabres in a 2-1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.

Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov hit the right goal post with three seconds remaining and goalie Louis Domingue pulled for the extra attacker.
Jeff Skinner and Kyle Okposo scored for the Sabres (10-6-2), who won their third straight.
WATCH: [All Lightning vs. Sabres highlights]
"This league's so tough to win in, I think the margin for error's so small that some nights you're going to have to sort of grind one out maybe you don't deserve to win," said Skinner, who has scored 12 goals in the past 11 games. "But I think for us, [Hutton] played a pretty big game for us and he got us a win. Sometimes you need a goalie to steal you one, and I think he did that tonight for us."

TBL@BUF: Skinner backhands puck past Domingue

Anthony Cirelli scored, and Domingue made 17 saves for the Lightning (12-5-1), who have lost consecutive games for the first time this season.
"There's some nights you just have to tip your hat to the other goaltender, and that's what you've got to do tonight," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "We did everything we could to try to win that game. I think scoring chances in the game were pretty heavily in our favor, and Hutton kicked them out."
Skinner scored to put Buffalo ahead 1-0 at 17:45 of the first period when he pushed the rebound of a Sam Reinhart shot past Domingue. It was his 13th goal, second in the NHL behind Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak (16).
Using Victor Hedman as a screen, Okposo made it 2-0 at 5:43 of the second with a shot from the top the right face-off circle through Hedman's legs.
It was the second straight game that the Lightning trailed by two goals in the first half of the game. They fell behind 2-0 to the Ottawa Senators 7:21 into a 6-4 loss Saturday.
"We want to start better," captain Steven Stamkos said. "It's not an easy league to win in, it's not an easy league to score goals in, so when you're spotting teams a goal or two goals early in the game, we know we have it in this room to come back, but you don't want to make that a trend."
The Lightning made a push in the second period, outshooting the Sabres 14-2.
Cirelli beat Hutton on a breakaway to make it 2-1 at 5:58 after Alex Killorn hit him with a lob pass.
"I thought we just gave them a little bit too much room to operate," Okposo said. "We just weren't as sharp; we've got to clean up some stuff. I know we've won the last three games, but we probably only played real good for about a period and a half."

TBL@BUF: Okposo beats Domingue along the ice

They said it

"It [stinks] when you don't score. I got some chances, gained some confidence, I guess, from this game. Didn't score a goal. We didn't score goals. I mean, we scored one but didn't have enough. We had a lot of chances, but you've got to give credit to the goalie, he played well." -- Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov
"Against good hockey teams you have to play a 60-minute game. I just thought there were times we got away from our quick puck movement. Our forwards were open. We didn't find them and move it up quickly to them. We found a hole to try to find a better play. The best play is just getting it up. … We're trying to find another play that wasn't there." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley

Need to know

Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak had two shots on goal, five hits and a plus-1 rating in 17:06 in his NHL debut. … The Sabres are 9-0-0 this season when Reinhart has at least one point. … Skinner is one point from 400 in the NHL.

What's next

Lightning: At the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, ATTSN-PT, SUN, NHL.TV)
Sabres:At the Winnipeg Jets on Friday (8 p.m. ET; TSN3, MSG-B, NHL.TV)

Hutton, Sabres hold off Lightning, 2-1