Tage Thompson rebounds in much-needed win for the Buffalo Sabres over Ottawa
By Sion Fawkes
If one player needed a bounce back performance tonight, it was Tage Thompson, who struggled more than perhaps any other forward in the Buffalo Sabres loss to the Seattle Kraken. But tonight, he scored twice in two minutes and four seconds, giving the Blue and Gold a 3-1 lead heading into the first intermission.
The first score came when Tage skated up the ice and performed some trickery to keep the Senators from taking away the puck. He had a good look and got one past goaltender Joonas Korpisalo at the 17:28 mark in what was a hard shot that hit the post and landed inside the net.
The second one came on a Sabres power play, which finished 1 for 3 tonight as JJ Peterka’s goal earlier in the evening came just after the man advantage. And it was vintage Tage, as he found himself just outside the left circle while on the man advantage, drifted toward the faceoff dot, and fired one to make it 3-1.
Tage Thompson bounces back in Buffalo Sabres win over Sens
While Tage had a great performance, he didn’t see much ice time, especially in the third period when he completed his final shift with 6:21 to go in the game and was not on the bench, so that’s something to watch out for. However, it doesn’t take away his epic performance in what was the Sabres third win in their fourth game of the calendar year, and fourth win in their last six contests.
Further, JJ Peterka broke his goalless streak by opening up the scoring, and Peyton Krebs and his pesky fourth line struck again when he scored the lone goal of the second period. Overall, it was a great game for the most part for the Buffalo Sabres sans a small scare in the third period when Ottawa brought the game to within a goal. But you can credit Tage’s performance for fueling the Blue and Gold in this one.
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(Statistics provided by NHL.com)