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Tampa Bay's Garon shuts out Sabres

Oct 23, 2011 - 4:02 AM Tampa, FL (Sports Network) - Pavel Kubina scored the eventual game-winning goal in the second period and backup netminder Mathieu Garon made 21 saves to earn his first shutout of the season as the Tampa Bay Lightning blanked the Buffalo Sabres, 3-0, from St. Pete Times Forum.

Martin St. Louis scored and added an assist, while Victor Hedman added an empty-net goal for the Lightning, who have won two straight since dropping five in a row.

"The way we play defensively made it easy on me," Garon said. "We blocked a lot of shots and took care of the rebounds. We've played well the last two games."

Ryan Miller made 23 saves on 25 shots in defeat for Buffalo, which had its three-game winning streak snapped.

After a scoreless first stanza, Tampa Bay opened the scoring at the 4:51 mark of the second period when Kubina accepted a pass at the right point from Steven Stamkos and fired a slap shot that got through the traffic in front and past Miller for a 1-0 lead.

St. Louis made it 2-0 at the 8:30 mark of the final stanza when Buffalo had trouble clearing its zone. Ville Leino picked up the puck just inside his blue line and had a chance to send the Sabres the other way with an odd-man rush, but his breakout pass was intercepted by Vincent Lecavalier at the left point.

The Lightning captain took a quick look up and spotted St. Louis completely unchecked in front, who had time to go forehand-backhand in close before roofing it stick side on Miller.

Hedman lit the lamp at the 18:33 mark to seal the victory.

Game Notes

Saturday marked the first of four meetings between the teams this season. Last year the teams split the four-game series...The teams will play the back end of a home-and-home series on Tuesday in Buffalo.