After enduring rough starts in their last five home games, the Buffalo Sabres rebounded with a record-setting performance.
Tyler Myers, Jochen Hecht and Clarke MacArthur scored in the first 2:11, and the Sabres held on for a 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night.
Buffalo's early burst was the fastest three-goal start in team history. Myers' goal 23 seconds into play came on a slapshot immediately following a faceoff. Hecht scored 48 seconds later on a tip-in from the slot, and MacArthur finished the flurry with a scoop-in after goalie Mike Smith made the initial stop.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the fourth-fastest start by a team since 1979-80, and the fastest since Detroit scored three times in the first 1:48 of a 12-0 rout of Chicago in December 1987.
It was in sharp contrast to the Sabres' recent efforts at home, where they had been outscored 4-1 and outshot 54-20 in the first period of their last five games.
"It was nice to come out the way we did," Myers said. "Especially the way we started some games here in the past. We're starting to figure out we have to play a full 60 minutes if we want to win a hockey game."
"It's not often you get three goals that quick," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff added. "Some of them were seeing-eye dogs that found a way to go in."
Drew Stafford and Jason Pominville also scored to help Buffalo win its fifth straight game, the team's longest winning streak since a six-game stretch in December 2007. Ryan Miller made 36 saves in his 300th NHL game.
Martin St. Louis, Victor Hedman and Vincent Lecavalier scored for Tampa Bay, 5-2-1 in its last eight. Mike Smith, making his seventh straight start, stopped 30 shots.
"I couldn't believe it," St. Louis said. "You can't put yourself into a [3-0] hole like that. It's hard."
Tampa Bay, however, trimmed the lead to 3-2 by the end of the opening period with goals by St. Louis and Hedman.
Stafford restored the two-goal cushion with a power-play goal 1:19 into the second period. Lecavalier and Pominville traded goals later in the period.
Tampa Bay outshot Buffalo 13-5 in the third period, but Miller stopped all attempts and was helped when a shot by Lightning blue-liner Mattias Ohlund rang off a goal post midway through.
"Even though we made a game out of it, we didn't play our 'A' game and I don't know if they did either," Ohlund said. "There were a lot of chances back and forth."
Toni Lydman, Tim Connolly and Craig Rivet each had two assists for the Sabres. Connolly extended his points streak to seven games.
