Thompson scores for Buffalo in 1st home game since winning Olympic gold with Team USA
Golden Knights at Sabres | Recap
BUFFALO — Tage Thompson scored in his first home game since winning the gold medal with Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, and the Buffalo Sabres extended their winning streak to four games with a 3-2 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.
Thompson, whose goal stood as the game-winner, was honored before the game along with Vegas center Jack Eichel and defenseman Noah Hanifin, and Buffalo massage therapist Brett Crompton. His mother, Kim, and his wife, Rachel, and their two sons joined him on the ice for the celebration and delivered the ceremonial puck drop.
“What an awesome night,” Thompson said. “So cool that my family got to be there for the puck drop, I had no idea that was happening. To get to share that moment with them, and obviously Jack and Noah and ‘Brettsky,’ that was really special. And what an amazing reception from the crowd. It was a little emotional for me, meant a lot, so thank you to all the fans and the people out there who supported us and showed up tonight.”
VGK@BUF: Thompson finds the twine, extends point streak
Jason Zucker and Owen Power scored for the Sabres (36-19-6), who played their first three games out of the break on the road. Alex Lyon made 27 saves.
Buffalo is two points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for first place in the Atlantic Division.
“I think you can look at a lot of games where we’ve had to show a lot of resolve,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “… There’s been a lot of training on the job for us where bad things have happened. We’ve made bad plays and teams have got back into it, we’ve played in tight games, there’s been a couple of games we’ve lost where we’ve been leading that you learn from.”
Ivan Barbashev and Pavel Dorofeyev scored, and Akira Schmid made 25 saves for the Golden Knights (28-19-14), who have lost three straight.
“We’ve been down this road before. We get behind, sort of get punched in the face, and then we get to our game,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We’ve been talking about trying to get there before that happens a lot. We just missed some chances. Offensively, didn’t execute as well as we need to.
“I think in general our secondary scoring has kind of been an issue for us, and we need that to win games. Whether that’s guys in the bottom of the lineup or defensemen, we didn’t have it tonight.”
Zucker gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 4:02 of the first period. Ryan McLeod’s attempt at a cross-ice pass deflected off Eichel’s skate to Zucker at the right post.
Power scored 46 seconds into the second period to make it 2-0. He took the puck off a face-off win by Noah Ostlund and walked to the middle of the blue line for a fluttering wrist shot that beat Schmid over his glove.
VGK@BUF: Power scores on set play off the face-off
Thompson received a backhand pass from Alex Tuch at the right circle and beat Schmid bar down to push it to 3-0 at 5:44. It resulted in a loud roar from the sold-out crowd and chants of “USA!”
“Such an awesome reception from the crowd, and it meant so much to me, and I’m sure it meant a lot to everyone in here,” Thompson said. “And to score and hear the crowd, that was probably the loudest I’ve heard it. Really cool. Obviously, a big goal in that time of the game.”
Barbashev made it 3-1 at 6:50. When Lyon went to his left for a save, Barbashev collected the rebound and scored on a wraparound at the opposite post, with the puck deflecting in off Lyon’s pad.
Dorofeyev scored on a breakaway to narrow it to 3-2 at 8:27. He got to a loose puck at the Vegas blue line and beat Lyon five-hole.
“It’s just not coming easy right now,” Vegas forward Colton Sissons said. “I think once we just started dumping pucks in, forechecking and turning things over, it really started to turn the tide, and I think we’ve just got to have kind of that mindset going forward here. Just get our feet back under us and start to build some momentum down the stretch here.”
NOTES: The Golden Knights played without captain Mark Stone, who is day to day with an upper-body injury he sustained in a 5-0 loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday. … Thompson has nine points (five goals, four assists) in an eight-game point streak. … Ruff earned his 700th career win in the regular season and playoffs combined with Buffalo. He is the second coach in NHL history to hit the milestone, joining Al Arbour (859 with the New York Islanders). … Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin had two assists.
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