Tage and Levi shine in Sabres win over New Jersey

Coming off an awful loss on home ice against the Ottawa Senators, the Buffalo Sabres were back in action for their second game in a five-game homestand. With this being the first game of a back-to-back, Devon Levi would get the start for Buffalo.

Much like the Senators game, the Sabres gave up the first goal early on as New Jersey scored three minutes into the game. As the period went past the halfway point, the Devils made it 2-0 thanks to Jesper Bratt. It was a bad first period for Buffalo and they went into the second period down by two.

Tage Thompson didn't waste any time as he cut New Jersey's lead in half when he scored 28 seconds into the second. With just a couple of minutes remaining, Thompson tied the game up at 2-2. After a rough first period, Buffalo came to life with a much better response heading into the final frame.

Both teams could not score for the most part in the third period. But guess who scored again? Tage scored his 25th goal of the season as he recorded a hat trick, giving the Sabres their first lead of the game, making it 3-2. With the goaltender pulled, New Jersey went for it all but they could not cash in as both JJ Peterka and Thompson scored empty netters, giving Buffalo the 5-2 victory.

Postgame thoughts

After watching the first period, I was thinking to myself, "Oh boy, here we go again". The team looked flat and it looked like the Devils were going to cruise past Buffalo. However, to their credit, the Sabres didn't give up and scored five unanswered goals. Tage dominated and Levi made some huge saves to keep Buffalo in the game.

The Sabres will be right back at it tomorrow night as they will host the Toronto Maple Leafs at 7 pm.