Stamkos, Kucherov lead Lightning over Sabres in Saturday matinee

Steven Stamkos scored his first goal of the season and Nikita Kucherov's first held up as the game winner as the Tampa Bay Lightning remained undefeated with a 4-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday afternoon.

Kucherov's top-shelf wrist shot gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead with 26 seconds remaining in the second period.

Stamkos tallied his goal midway through the third, and J.T. Brown tipped in an insurance marker on a shot by defenseman Jason Garrison to give the Lightning a three-goal advantage.

Tampa Bay goaltender Ben Bishop stopped 19 of 20 shots for his second win of the season. Sabres netminder Chad Johnson held the Lightning off the scoresheet for the first 28 minutes before Erik Condra opened the scoring.

Nicolas Deslauriers scored the lone Sabres goal midway through the second period.

Tampa Bay improved to 2-0-0 after winning its season opener over the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime Thursday. The Sabres fell to 0-2-0 after dropping their opener 3-1 to the Ottawa Senators.