Sabres takeaways: Tage Thompson 'takes charge,' scores clutch goal in win

Lindy Ruff was growing concerned about the Sabres’ conservative approach during the third period Tuesday night in KeyBank Center when one of his players began to rally everyone else on the bench to the coach’s cause.

Tage Thompson was the voice of reason as the Sabres clung to a two-goal lead against one of the best teams in the NHL, then he put those words into action on the ice by scoring a highlight-reel goal to give Buffalo the insurance it needed in a 4-2 win over the Dallas Stars.

“I thought he took charge,” Ruff said after the Sabres improved to 3-4-1. “That’s what you want to see out of the leaders on your team.”

The Sabres were ahead 2-0 after Peyton Krebs and Ryan McLeod scored 83 seconds apart in the second period, but they weren’t comfortable when they returned to their dressing room for the intermission.

Ruff cautioned his team to be careful. The Stars are a patient team able to score in bunches if their opponent is careless with the puck, but he didn’t want his players to be afraid to make plays. Sitting back was part of the problem when Buffalo blew a two-goal lead in two of its previous three games.

The Stars (5-2) already had four shots on goal in the third period when Alex Tuch intercepted a pass along the wall to begin the game-changing shift for the Sabres. Thompson then almost set up Tuch for a shot in the slot before Dallas cleared its own zone and got the puck behind Buffalo’s net. Tuch regained possession, saw Thompson in the neutral zone and sent an outlet pass to his linemate.

Thompson took control of the puck and crossed the offensive-zone blue line when he heard his teammate, defenseman Owen Power, call for the pass. Thompson skated a few feet to his left to avoid Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen and curled his stick around to pass to Power.

“For him to see that is pretty special,” Power said of Thompson. “He’s got two guys all over him with me trailing behind. For him to see that and make that play obviously shows how talented of a player he is.”

Power collected the puck and immediately sent a cross-ice pass back to Thompson, who hammered a one-timer past Stars goalie Jake Oettinger to put the Sabres ahead 3-0 with 15:43 left in regulation.

Thompson had a one goal and an assist, and he has five goals with eight points in eight games. He’s been as effective as he was late last season when he finally recovered from the wrist injury that caused his production to drop from 47 goals to 94 points in 2022-23 to 29 goals and 56 points.

“I think with a goaltender like Oettinger, any time you can get him moving cross the middle of the ice two times, it’s going to be tough for him to get back,” said Thompson. “That one felt good going in and gives us a nice cushion.”

The Sabres didn’t coast to a win, though. Thomas Harley and Tyler Seguin scored 2:24 apart late in the third period to draw the Stars to within one goal with 2:12 left in regulation. Tuch’s empty-netter secured the win and rewarded his goalie, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, for another stellar performance.

1. Blocking shots

Dallas had a 2-on-1 odd-man rush against Luukkonen just 12 seconds into the game, but Rasmus Dahlin managed to get in front of Matt Duchene’s shot.

The Sabres blocked 10 shots in 9:21 to start the game and finished with 27. Their fearless approach to clogging shot lanes helped them kill off three Stars power plays, including two in the first period. Jordan Greenway was in position to prevent Harley’s shot from getting to the net in the third period, but the puck deflected off Jason Zucker’s stick and floated past Luukkonen to give Dallas its first goal. Greenway and Connor Clifton both had five blocked shots, while Power had four and five Sabres had two apiece.

“If you look at what Greenway did to try to make sure he denied that puck getting to the net, down sideways where it could hit him anywhere in the body, that just tells me there’s a guy that wants to win,” said Ruff.

2. Improvement

Trading a second-round pick for Beck Malenstyn wasn’t the best value when you compare the deal with others around the league.

It won’t matter though if Malenstyn plays like he did Saturday against Chicago and Tuesday against Dallas. He finishes checks, excels on the penalty kill and gets to the front of the net in the offensive zone. Malenstyn tipped Power’s shot off the crossbar and Krebs was in position to bat it out of the air for the goal at 12:21 into the second period.

“We came into the year wanting to score more dirty goals, and I think when you look at that goal, it’s the definitely of a dirty goal,” said Power, who had three assists.

3. Getting close

We hadn’t seen Dahlin’s best before Tuesday night.

He missed most of training camp with a middle-body injury and, according to Ruff, the time away led to his slow start and impacted him as recently as last week. The Sabres coach told reporters following practice Monday that Dahlin was finally getting close to 100% and the defenseman backed it up against the Stars with an outstanding game.

Dahlin had five shots on goal and nine shot attempts in a team-high 23:41 of ice time. He was in top form during the power play in the second period, helping Buffalo enter the zone before he created the rebound that Dylan Cozens backhanded off the post.

4. Learning

Jiri Kulich is in Buffalo to score.

Even at 20 years old, his left-handed shot is among the best on the team. The 2022 first-round draft pick needs to use it, though. Kulich forced a cross-ice pass rather than trusting his shot to beat Oettinger. The better move would be to fake a pass and try to get the goalie out of position. The Sabres have a spot in the lineup for Kulich because Zach Benson is taking time off for his lower-body injury to heal, but it won’t last for long if Kulich is hesitating like he did on that play.

Cozens remains without a goal through eight games, but he hit the side of the empty net and produced four shots on goal.

5. Power play

The Sabres are 0-for-22 on the power play to start the season after failing to score on their lone opportunity against the Stars’ top-ranked penalty kill.

However, it was the second consecutive game in which Buffalo generated scoring chances and should have beaten the goalie. The power play didn’t capitalize, but the Sabres used the momentum gained from the two-minute man-advantage to break through less than two minutes after the penalty expired.

“We’ll get one by the end of the year,” Ruff said tongue-in-cheek.