The Buffalo Sabres returned to their home arena, KeyBank Center, for the first time in nearly a month on Tuesday. The team was greeted by a sold-out crowd of 19,070 fans as they faced the Vegas Golden Knights. Before the game began, the Sabres honored forward Tage Thompson and massage therapist Brett Crompton for winning gold with Team USA at the Winter Olympics. Thompson’s family surprised him by joining him for the ceremonial puck drop.
“What an awesome night. So cool that my family got to be there for the puck drop – I had no idea that was happening,” Thompson said. “To get to share that moment with them, and obviously (Vegas’ Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin) and Bretsky, that was really special.
“And what an amazing reception from the crowd. It was a little emotional for me, meant a lot, so thank you to all the fans and the people out there who supported us and showed up tonight.”
The pregame celebration appeared to energize Buffalo early in the contest. Jason Zucker scored four minutes into play after a blocked pass left him with an open net. Early in the second period, Owen Power’s shot deflected off Vegas defenseman Rasmus Andersson’s stick past goaltender Akira Schmid to give Buffalo a 2-0 lead.
Both goals resulted from offensive-zone faceoff wins; Buffalo won 57 percent of its faceoffs during the game.
Thompson extended Buffalo’s lead shortly afterward with his 33rd goal of the season.
“To score and hear the crowd, that was probably the loudest I’ve heard it,” he said. “Really cool. Obviously, a big goal in that time of the game.”
Thompson’s goal proved decisive as Vegas responded quickly with goals from Ivan Barbashev and Pavel Dorofeyev within less than two minutes, narrowing Buffalo’s lead to one.
Buffalo held on through sustained pressure from Vegas late in regulation. Goalie Alex Lyon made 29 saves overall and recorded eight high-danger saves according to Natural Stat Trick data; his performance added 2.71 goals saved above expected—a metric where he ranks among league leaders this season.
“They came with a pretty good push,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “They started bringing their D on almost every offensive play and creating a little bit of pressure, but I thought we handled it pretty well.”
With less than half a minute remaining, Braeden Bowman of Vegas narrowly missed tying the game when his shot hit the crossbar—his second post of the night—before Peyton Krebs secured possession for Buffalo and ran out most of the remaining clock.
“I think that the biggest sign of really good composure tonight was the Krebs play late in the game,” Ruff said. “Didn’t ice it, didn’t go for the empty net. Made a great play to get it over center ice and that led to killing the last 15 seconds.”
Ruff attributed such plays to experience gained by players last season in close games: “on-the-job training.” He noted these lessons have helped this year’s team improve at holding late leads as they compete not only for playoff qualification but also home-ice advantage in upcoming rounds.
With 21 games left on their schedule, Buffalo has accumulated 78 points—two more than Detroit for second place in their division and two fewer than Tampa Bay atop standings.
“There’s going to be so much adversity down the stretch here,” Lyon said, “so we just have to continue to stay in the moment and be ready for anything.”
Added Thompson: “You’re not gonna have your best every night, but good teams find ways to win even when they don’t have it, and I thought we did that tonight.”
Buffalo will next travel to face Pittsburgh Penguins before beginning another stretch of home games.
