Buffalo Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram (4) passes the puck as Florida Panthers center Anton Lundell (15) defends during the third period of Saturday’s game in Sunrise, Fla. AP photo

TAMPA, Fla. — Jake Guentzel scored twice to reach the 40-goal mark, NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov had two goals and an assist and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied to beat the Buffalo Sabres 7-4 on Sunday.

Conor Geekie, Ryan McDonagh and Emil Lilleberg also scored for Tampa Bay, and Jonas Johansson made with 21 saves. Brandon Hagel had three assists.

Jiri Kulich, Conor Clifton, Sam Lafferty and Alex Tuch scored for Buffalo. James Reimer stopped 24 shots.

Guentzel put Tampa Bay in front with 3:25 left in the first period. Buffalo took the lead with two goals in the final 30 seconds of the period as Kulich and Clifton scored 15 seconds apart.

But the Lightning scored four times in the second period to pull away. McDonagh tied it at 3:02. Kucherov scored his first of the night at 6:34. Geekie made it 4-2 with 5:39 left, and Lilleberg’s added his first career goal wth 3:15 to go for a 5-2 lead.

The teams traded goals in the third period.

Takeaways

Sabres: Buffalo is winless in three games (0-2-1) since a five-game winning streak. … Coach Lindy Ruff remains stuck on 899 career wins and needs one more to join Scotty Bowman, Joel Quenneville, Paul Maurice and Barry Trotz as the only coaches with 900.

Lightning: Tampa Bay RW Oliver Bjorkstrand is out week-to-week with an undisclosed lower-body injury suffered on Friday against Detroit. … Kucherov leads the league with 119 points.

Key moment

Kucherov collected a pass off the wall from Victor Hedman and touched the puck around Alex Tuch at the red line to open up space. Kucherov gained the zone with speed and put a shot off the crossbar that hit Reimer and landed in the crease where he poked it in for the go-ahead goal in the second period.

Key stat

Lilleberg scored his first career NHL goal, becoming the sixth Norwegian-born player to score in the NHL.

Up next

Both teams play Tuesday night. Buffalo hosts Toronto, and Tampa Bay hosts Florida.

Anton Lundell scores in shootout to lift Panthers to 3-2 win over Sabres

PANTHERS 3, SABRES 2 SO

SUNRISE, Fla. — Anton Lundell scored the only goal of the shootout and the Florida Panthers beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 on Saturday night.

Carter Verhaeghe had a goal and an assist, and Jesse Puljujarvi also scored in regulation for Florida. Vitek Vanecek made 26 saves and stopped all three Buffalo attempts in the shootout.

After a five-game skid at the beginning of April, the Panthers have won three straight as they sit two points behind Tampa Bay for second place in the Atlantic Division.

Rasmus Dahlin and JJ Peterka had power-play goals for the Sabres. Peterka added an assist and extended his point streak to four games. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 32 shots.

Takeaways

Sabres: Dahlin has 13 points in his last 11 games and has a goal in back-to-back outings, the third time this season he’s scored in at least two consecutive games.

Panthers: Florida rested top scorers Aleksander Barkov and Sam Reinhart as it tries to get as healthy as possible for the postseason. Sam Bennett (upper body), Matthew Tkachuk (lower-body) and Aaron Ekblad (suspended) remain out until the playoffs.

Key moment

There was a brawl at center ice in the second period after what appeared to be a hard hit by Florida’s Jonah Gadjovich on Sabres center Jiri Kulich. Gadjovich was initially penalized, but it was rescinded after a review. Things were a bit chippy the rest of the game, with nine penalties given in the third and Dahlin set up Peterka for the tying goal with about eight minutes left in the third, just as a 5-on-3 power play was expiring.

Key stat

Verhaeghe has a goal in each of his last two games. Before that, he had been held without a goal in 13 straight.