Thompson scores in 5th straight, Sabres top Flyers for 4th win in row

BUFFALO -- Tage Thompson extended his goal streak to five games, and the Buffalo Sabres held on to win their fourth straight, 5-3 against the Philadelphia Flyers at KeyBank Center on Thursday.

Zach Benson and Mattias Samuelsson each had two assists, and Alex Lyon made 24 saves for the Sabres (15-14-4). The win was Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff's 915th in the NHL, moving him past Barry Trotz for fourth in League history.

“Coming off a long West Coast trip, you’re a little fatigued, it takes a little bit to adjust to the time to and just kind of get your feet under you,” Thompson said. “Obviously, I thought Lyon did a great job keeping it a close game for us, and I think we settled into it about halfway through the second, and kind of felt a rhythm and started to tilt the ice in our favor. I think once our bench kind of felt that, we just kind of rolled with it.”

Buffalo defenseman Conor Timmins was helped off the ice and left the game at 14:40 of the third period with a broken leg after an awkward fall by the penalty box. Ruff said he will be out 6-8 weeks.

Noah Cates, Cam York and Travis Konecny scored, and Bobby Brink had two assists for the Flyers (17-10-6), whose five-game point streak ended (2-0-3). Samuel Ersson made 23 saves.

“I think it’s just group maturity,” York said. “I think we’re still a little immature in some areas; you don’t want to play simple sometimes and it comes back to bite you when you don’t want to get the pucks behind their D-man and forecheck. We’re not going to have the puck much and we’re going to be defending. There’s a lot of things that go into the games, obviously, but we’re definitely struggling to put a full 60 together.”

Jack Quinn gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 7:40 of the first period when he redirected Samuelsson’s point shot past Ersson’s left skate.

Cates scored 58 seconds later to tie it 1-1 at 8:38. Brink took a loose puck into the left face-off circle and pushed it over to Cates, who beat Lyon glove side with a quick snap shot from above the left hash marks.

York put Philadelphia ahead 2-1 at 11:01 of the second period. He received a pass from Trevor Zegras in the right circle and scored to the far side.

Thompson tied it 2-2 at 16:54. Rasmus Dahlin sent a backhand pass through his legs to Thompson in the right circle, and Thompson cut toward the hash marks before scoring with a shot that went in off the right post.

Thompson has five goals during his streak.

Noah Ostlund gave Buffalo a 3-2 lead at 19:30, taking a pass from Owen Power and sending a wrist shot through traffic.

“You look at those last couple goals, with the possession and the plays we made,” Ruff said. “The play ‘Dahls’ made to ‘Tommer,’ Tommer just changing the shooting angle. I think if Tommer shoots right away, I don’t think he scores, but he just changed the angle, got another 4 or 5 feet and put it off the far post. And then the play on the Ostlund goal was good possession inside the offensive zone.”

Josh Norris pushed it to 4-2 at 10:20 of the third period with a power-play goal. Benson found him uncovered in the right circle for a wrist shot that beat Ersson through the five-hole.

“We didn't get too far ahead of ourselves and it would have been easy to,” Lyon said. “I think it's obviously been well documented that at times we get a little bit high and we get a little low. … So I think that that was really encouraging that we just continued to stay the course. They scored in the third and when we continued to stay the course. We locked it down. We could have caved a little bit there, but we did a really good job.”

Konecny cut it to 4-3 at 14:28, going blocker side from the top of the slot, before Ryan McLeod scored an empty-net goal at 19:52 for the 5-3 final.

“Lessons to be had here,” Philadelphia defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “You can’t take anything for granted, can’t take your foot off the gas and get away from your game. We’re not good enough to play that style. We have our style that works for us and when we do, we’re a really good hockey team, and when we get away from it, you see that tonight.”

NOTES: Zegras’ assist on York’s goal extended his point streak to six games (eight points; four goals, four assists). He had a four-game goal streak end (four goals). … Thompson has eight points (five goals, three assists) in a five-game point streak. … Dahlin’s assist on Thompson’s goal was the 300th of his NHL career. He is the ninth player in Sabres history to reach the mark with the team. … Buffalo forward Tyson Kozak left the game midway through the second period with an upper-body injury. Ruff did not have an update on him. … It was the Sabres’ first game since Jarmo Kekalainen replaced Kevyn Adams as general manager Monday. Adams was fired the same day.