BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Tachi Thompson was honored and scored as the U.S. won Olympic hockey gold and the Buffalo Sabers beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 on Tuesday night to win their fourth straight game.
Irving Ball and Jason Zucker also scored for the surging Sabers. Buffalo improved to 25-5-2 over its past 32 games and has won 35 games in 61 games, the franchise’s highest mark since the same period in 2006-07 when they won 41 games.
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Alex Lyon made 29 saves in his last 15 starts to improve to 13-2.
Pavel Dorofeyev scored his team’s 29th goal and Ivan Barbashev added a goal as Vegas tied its season low with three straight losses in the regular season. The declining Golden Knights’ record in the past 14 games has also dropped to 4 wins, 8 draws and 2 losses.
Akira Schmid stopped 25 shots.
At 5 minutes and 44 seconds of the second quarter, Thompson’s goal gave the Sabers a 3-0 lead and seemed to have the situation under control. Thompson received a no-look pass from Alex Tuch and fired a shot high into the far right circle that beat Schmid for his team-leading 33rd goal.
However, the Golden Knights responded, with Babashev and Dorofeev scoring with 1:37 to go, cutting the lead to 3-2 at 8:27 of the game.
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Thompson was honored during a pregame ceremony during Buffalo’s first home game since returning from the Olympic break last week.
Thompson drew loud cheers in his opener against Olympian and Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel, who even drew applause against his former team.
The Golden Knights lost captain Mark Stone to an injury in Sunday’s 5-0 loss to Pittsburgh but missed the game. Coach Bruce Cassidy said Stone is undergoing treatment with the team and listed him as day-to-day.
Next
Golden Knights: End a five-game stretch at Detroit on Wednesday.
Sabres: At Pittsburgh on Thursday.
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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
