Things got uglier for the Lightning in the second period when the Sabres started to look even more aggressive in Tampa Bay’s zone. Buffalo opened up the second period with a goal at 1:09 from Marcus Foligno. Tampa Bay did however, score a pair of goals to negate Ryan Miller’s shut out.
At 7:12 of the second period, Bruno Gervais converted on an impressive pass through traffic by Teddy Purcell to make it a 3-1 game. Less than two minutes later, Buffalo’s Cory Tropp took advantage of a breakaway at 8:16, ending Dustin Tokarski’s time in net. Tokarski allowed four goals on 15 shots.
Then, Trevor Smith cut the Sabres lead in half when he scored his first goal of the season at 14:14 of the period.
Foligno saw the back of the net again, this time on the power play at 16:22 of the second period. 38 seconds later, Brad Boyes made it a 6-2 lead for the Sabres.