Tage Thompson scored twice as the Buffalo Sabres ended their six-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the visiting Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Alex Tuch also tallied for Buffalo, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 32 saves in the victory that snapped an 0-5-1 skid.
Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse scored for the Oilers, both off assists from Leon Draisaitl, who extended his point streak to a career-best 15 games. Stuart Skinner stopped 20 shots. Edmonton had won three of its previous four games.
Thompson tallied his second goal of the game as he dangled around Skinner and gave the Sabres a 3-2 lead with 16:40 left in the third period.
The Oilers came out firing early, as just over three minutes into the contest Connor Brown and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins both hit the post.
Josh Norris tallied his first point as a Sabre with the lone assist on the game-winning goal. He was playing in his second game for Buffalo after being acquired in a trade with the Ottawa Senators.
Draisaitl stormed in all alone toward Luukkonen with just over seven minutes left in the first, but the Sabres goaltender got his blocker in front of the attempt from the NHL’s leading goal-scorer.
Thompson put the Sabres on top with 6:32 left in the first period. After Skinner provided a juicy rebound on Thompson’s initial shot, the Sabres superstar pounced on the loose puck to score. It Buffalo’s 72nd goal in the first period of games this season, the top total in the league.
The Oilers found the post for a third time in the final moments of the opening 20 minutes as Nurse took a drop pass from Zach Hyman and wired his wrist shot off the iron.
Nurse got his revenge early in the second period. He took a pass from Troy Stetcher and blasted his slap shot into the back of the net to knot the game up at 1-1 at 1:35.
Buffalo regained the lead minutes later as Tuch launched a wrist shot past Skinner at 3:52.
The Oilers tied the contest up on the power play at 9:12 of the second as Connor McDavid fed Bouchard, who fired his slap shot past Luukkonen.
With just over three minutes left in the middle frame, Draisaitl slithered around the defending skaters but couldn’t slide his backhand through Luukkonen’s legs.
–Field Level Media
