The Tampa Bay Lightning have been searching for offense over the last couple of weeks.
On Thursday night, they found it.
Quickly.
The Bolts chased Buffalo starter Linus Ullmark after just 20 minutes of action, scoring three times on 11 shots to send Ullmark packing after the first period.
Steve Stamkos got the scoring started at the 5:55 mark, on assists from Valtteri Filppula and Ondrej Palat. Just under six minutes later, Tyler Johnson made is 2-0 with his second goal of the season and, with 100 seconds to go in the period, Nikita Kucherov scored to push the lead to three, and end Ullmark’s night.
Chad Johnson took over for the Sabres to start the second frame.
Head coach Dan Bylsma’s move to yank Ullmark seemed to spark Buffalo, as Jack Eichel cut the Tampa Bay lead to 3-1 just 4:21 into the middle period.
That will probably be of little solace to the Swedish ‘tender, however -- Ullmark came into tonight’s game riding a two-game winning streak, only to have it snapped in rather blunt fashion.