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Pominville, Sabres cruise past Lightning

Jan 30, 2008 - 5:03 AM TAMPA, Florida (Ticker) -- Jason Pominville and the Buffalo Sabres enjoyed the fun and sun of Tampa.

Pominville had a goal and assisted on two others as the Sabres posted a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

Clarke MacArthur and Derek Roy each scored and helped on another and Drew Stafford also tallied for Buffalo, which has won two straight.

The Sabres have had recent success at the St. Pete Times Forum, winning six straight against the Lighting while taking nine of 10 overall against Tampa Bay.

"Every victory is a pretty big lift," Pominville said. "We got a good start and then kind of let them back in the game with a 5-on-3 goal. But besides that, I thought our game was pretty solid."

MacArthur put Buffalo up early when on a two-man break, he took Pominville's pass and shot it past the stick of Johan Holmqvist when the Lightning goaltender couldn't get back in time to close the crease. The goal came at 4:58 into the game to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead.

"I thought our line got off to a good start," Pominville said. "We got a goal early and then managed to get a few rush chances which doesn't happen often nowadays. We were fortunate to capitalize on two of them."

Later in the period, MacArthur rewarded Pominville on a near identical play.

With 7:46 left in the session, Pominville - on a give-and-go - received a sharp feed from MacArthur just inside the right faceoff circle before firing past Holmqvist high to the stick side to increase Buffalo's lead to 2-0.

"I thought the (line of center Jochen Hecht, Pominville and MacArthur) made some nice plays," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "On the second goal, Tampa gambled a little bit and Hecht made a nice feed allowing us to score a really pretty goal. That line has some good chemistry and they've made some real nice plays."

"Two breakdowns by us and it's 2-0," Lightning center Brad Richards said. "We got back to doing what we did after that and I don't think we gave up. We made some plays on them, but once again we were down, 2-0, and that set us back."

In the second period, the Sabres increased their lead to 3-0 midway through when Stafford redirected Roy's shot between the pads of Holmqvist.

"Trailing by multiple goals puts the other team in a different frame of mind," Ruff said of the Sabres' three-goal lead. "It makes them change their game. Instead of being a little safer and defending, they have to get on their toes and take some chances. A lot of times that means you're going to get more chances. There's a lot more flow in the game for us."

Roy gave the Sabres a 4-0 bulge when he jammed the puck between the left skate of Holmqvist and the right post with 3:15 left in the middle session.

Ryan Miller allowed power-play goals to Richards and Vaclav Prospal, but stopped 23 shots for his 20th win of the season.

"We missed a lot of shots when we were down," Richards said. "Sometimes you don't do things the way you normally would. Miller did a good job."

Holmqvist made 22 saves for the Lightning, who have lost three of four to remain with the worst record (20-26-5) in the Eastern Conference.

"The loss is a downer, but I thought our team played hard, right on through," Lightning coach John Tortorella said. "It's not through lack of effort, but we had some really good scoring chances that didn't even get on the net - and that's the way it went tonight."