In Buffalo, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 25 saves in a 5-3 win for the Sabres over the visiting Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.
The Sabres moved to 18-20-4.
“I think he was on a mission to play better than he played the other night (5-2 loss Tuesday to the Seattle Kraken),” Buffalo coach Don Granato said of Thompson. “I’ve talked with him a couple times 1-on-1 in the last couple days, and that’s what I got out of it. He wanted to play much better than he did the other night. And he did with urgency, and obviously he’s a dangerous guy when he’s playing with that type of urgency.”
The Sabres jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a marker from JJ Peterka gave at 9:14 of the opening stanza.
“We want the wins,” Buffalo’s Peyton Krebs said. “We know the taste of what it feels like to lose and it’s not fun. As a group, collectively, we came into the third period and said, ‘We need to lock in right now,’ and we did that. Obviously let in a couple goals there, but we didn’t get flustered and we made it happen.”
The Senators replied six minutes later when Vladimir Tarasenko knotted the game, 1-1, at 15:06.
Tage Thompson, who hit for a double in the win, reclaimed the lead for Buffalo at 2-1 with just over two minutes left in the first.
Thompson picked up his double with 28 seconds left in the first for a 3-1 lead to the Sabres headed to the middle frame.
The Senators dropped to 14-23-0 off their fifth straight loss.
“We’ll get a little more news tomorrow,” Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said of Forsberg. “I think he’ll get an MRI tomorrow and we’ll find out more on his condition.”
In the second period, Peyton Krebs ballooned the Sabres advantage to 4-1 at 4:52.
In the third period, Claude Giroux scored a double for the Senators. His first came with 43 seconds gone in the frame for a 4-2 score to the Sabres.
“Yeah, we turned it on in the third, but we have to do it the whole game,” Giroux said. “It [stinks] right now. I don’t know if it’s confidence, or … I don’t think it’s lack of effort. But yeah, at the end of the day, we’ve just got to be better.”
He collected his double at 11:15 to trim the deficit to 4-3.
Dylan Cozens scored an empty-net goal with three seconds left on the game clock for the 5-3 final count on the scoreboard.
“Obviously he’s been on a little bit of a stretch here without a goal, and I’ve kind of struggled offensively too,” Cozens said. “So, to get that one early, it was a big for our line’s confidence moving forward. And I think we’ve had lots of chances as of late, but we haven’t put one in the back of the net, so to get one there felt good for us.”
Anton Forsberg got the start for the Sens, but left the ice just after the midway point of the first period with an apparent injury.
Joonas Korpisalo made 21 saves in relief.
“I thought that we made some mistakes that cost us goals, but I liked the way we rallied in the third period,” Martin said. “I think there was a good confidence for the guys. We play the right way and we keep pressuring on the defense, you’re going to get some turnovers and some scoring opportunities from it. And we probably had some chances to tie it, but I think we’re going to keep learning.”
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