"Fighting, scrambling and battling continue to provide hope for the Lightning.

Mathieu Garon stopped 26 shots while Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist to lead Tampa Bay to a 2-1 victory against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday at First Niagara Center. Steve Downie also scored as the Lightning improved to 7-1-2 in their past 10 games and have earned points in four consecutive road games (3-0-1), a season best heading into Sunday's game at Pittsburgh.

The victory vaulted Tampa Bay from 14th in the conference to 11th and to within eight points of Toronto for the final playoff spot. The Lightning also kept pace with Southeast Division-leading Florida to remain nine points back of the division lead.

"It's a big two points for us,'' said Stamkos, who leads the league with 37 goals. "Early in the season we weren't able to finish games like this or we weren't able to grind it out and pay the price. We have to find a way sometime.''

That sometime is now as Tampa Bay is putting together a resurgent run and Garon has been a big part of the recent turnaround. He played his part once again on Saturday, coming up with key stops, particularly in the third period when he made 13 saves to improve to 3-0 this season against Buffalo.

"The first and second (periods), it wasn't necessarily where he had to save us,'' Lightning head coach Guy Boucher said. "But in the third period he did what No. 1 goaltenders do, what good goaltenders do: they find that big save that makes a difference and he found them.''"