Tage Thompson had a goal and an assist to help the visiting Buffalo Sabres to their fifth straight win, 3-2 over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.
Rasmus Dahlin and Jeff Skinner each had two assists for the Sabres, while Eric Comrie made 19 saves in his return to Winnipeg — just his second game since returning from a lower-body injury on Jan. 10.
Nate Schmidt and Pierre-Luc Dubois scored for the Jets, who got 33 saves from goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. Winnipeg is 2-4-0 in its last six.
After a scoreless first period in which Buffalo outshot Winnipeg 14-6, it was all Sabres in the second.
Owen Power scored for the third straight game to give the Buffalo 1-0 lead at 10:32. Fresh off the bench, Power took a pass from Dahlin at the right point and skated to the left circle before firing short side on Hellebuyck.
With the goal, he became the first rookie defenseman in Sabres history to record a goal streak of at least three games.
Dahlin’s assist on the goal was his 40th of the season in his 47th game, making him the second defenseman in Buffalo history to reach the mark in fewer than 50 games after John Van Boxmeer, who achieved the feat in 38 games in 1981-82.
Thompson made it 2-0 at 14:15. Skinner carried the puck into the zone along the left wing and dished off to Alex Tuch on the far side, where Hellebuyck slid over in anticipation of a shot. But Tuch sent a quick pass to Thompson, who had an open net for his 34th of the season.
The Sabres outshot Winnipeg 14-5 in the second period.
Victor Olofsson took a feed from Skinner down low on the power play and connected from the bottom of the right circle to push the lead to 3-0 at 10:30 of the third period.
Schmidt got the Jets on the board with a power-play goal from the inner right hashmarks at 15:14 and Dubois made it 3-2 from the bottom of the left circle with 43 seconds remaining, but that was too late for the Jets to complete the comeback.
–Field Level Media
