Kucherov gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 10:24 of the first period, scoring on a shot from the low slot off a pass from Guentzel after he intercepted a clearing attempt from Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.
Samuelsson tied it 1-1 at 16:53 with a sharp-angled wrist shot from the bottom of the left circle that beat Vasilevskiy to the far post.
“Heck of an effort. You could see that back-to-back … we didn’t quite have the energy, but we found sound energy late,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “Big push in the third period and a great power-play goal. We had a couple of great opportunities. … We had [Dahlin] and [Tage Thompson] walking it in overtime to win it for us, but you know, it didn’t hit the mark.”
Samuelsson scored again to give Buffalo a 2-1 lead at 4:08 of the third period. He beat Vasilevskiy glove side with a snap shot from above the hash marks.
“We’ll take the three points, but we let that fourth one slip away tonight,” Samuelsson said. “We’ve got to find a way to kill the rest of that clock. We had a lot of chances too in overtime that we didn’t capitalize on, but yeah, we’ll take the three points.”
Oliver Bjorkstrand tied it 2-2 at 8:53 when he followed up an initial shot from Raddysh for a power-play goal.
“He’s been great,” Raddysh said of Bjorkstrand’s efforts on the power play. “He’s been feeling it when (Brayden) Point wasn’t there.”
Doan put the Sabres back ahead 3-2 at 14:53, scoring a power-play goal on a deflection at the crease after Thompson sent the puck toward the net.
“That was probably an entertaining hockey game for most,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “You know the coaches will pick it apart, but that was two, what I consider, really good teams that went at it, and it’s probably fitting that it went to overtime.”
NOTES: Kucherov has 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) during a five-game multipoint streak. He has 31 multipoint games this season. … Samuelsson has 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in his past 10 games. … Raddysh became the sixth defenseman in the past 25 years to record a five-game goal streak, joining Mike Green (eight games in 2008-09), Jakob Chychrun (five games in 2025-26), Dahlin (five games in 2022-23), Cale Makar (five games in 2021-22) and Roman Josi (five games in 2019-20). … Sabres defenseman Jacob Bryson returned to the lineup after missing the previous five games. He had a shot on goal in 11:01 of ice time.
