The Buffalo Sabres' to-do list just got even smaller.

The Sabres, solidly in first place in the Northeast Division at the midpoint of the season,

had a few things they wanted to improve on during the second half of the schedule. Score more

and start better were near the top of the list.

The second half began Wednesday night. In the history of the franchise, the Sabres have

never scored so much, so quickly.

That takes care of those improvements.

The Sabres stunned the Tampa Bay Lightning with three goals in the opening 2:11, then

entertained the HSBC Arena crowd with an up-and-down 5-3 victory.

"We found a way to bury them, three of the first six shots," left wing Jochen Hecht said.

"Not pretty plays, but we got pucks to the net, rebounds were laying around, and we put them

in. That's the start we wanted."

The quick start pushed the Sabres' winning streak to five games, a number they hadn't

reached since December 2007. They will try for six in a row Friday night when they host the

Toronto Maple Leafs.

"It feels good, obviously," defenseman Tyler Myers said. "It's a good atmosphere in the

room."

The atmosphere in the arena was just as joyous soon after the puck dropped. The fans,

announced as a sellout of 18,690, were repeatedly out of their seats before they could get

comfortable in them.

The lamp-lighting start was the fourth-fastest three-goal barrage in the NHL since 1979-80

and the best ever for the Sabres. Their previous record was three goals in 2:17, set during a

5-2 win over the New York Islanders on Oct. 26, 1980.

Sabres coach Lindy Ruff scored the second goal of that flurry.

"Was it an end-to-end rush?" he said with a laugh after not recalling the details. "It

probably went off my skate."

Myers started Wednesday's record-setting run with a slap shot 23 seconds in that didn't go

off anything. Tim Connolly won a faceoff in the Lightning zone, and Myers immediately fired

the puck over goalie Mike Smith.

Hecht scored 48 seconds later. Craig Rivet delivered a slap pass toward the slot, where

Hecht deflected the puck past Smith with 1:11 off the clock.

Clarke MacArthur's first goal in 11 games came with 2:11 gone and pushed the Lightning to a

timeout. The Sabres had three goals on six shots, and Tampa had nothing in either department.

"I didn't even have a chance to get a sweat in," Smith said.

The Lightning slowly rose from its slumber and scored the next two goals, ending the first

period in just a 3-2 hole.

Buffalo started the second period similar to the first, with Drew Stafford deflecting a

Derek Roy pass with 1:19 gone.

"I was happy that we kept competing through a three-goal lead," said Sabres goalie Ryan

Miller, who made 36 saves. "We gave up two, but we kept at it and did a nice job."

Less than two minutes after Tampa again cut its deficit to one, Jason Pominville put the

Sabres back up by two.

"You've got to make sure you stay with your game plan," Hecht said. "We let them in a

little bit of the game in the second half of the first period, but every time they scored a

goal we found an answer and scored another one."

For at least one night, they also took care of two concerns with one record-setting goal

surge.

"That was a good change of pace," said defenseman Toni Lydman, who had two assists. "It's

no secret we've been struggling with our first periods lately, so we wanted to get a good

start. That's what we did. You don't want to let up when you're going good. It's the start we

wanted, and now we've got to focus on the next game to start the same way."