At the Horn

Tage Thompson scored his eighth career hat trick to lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 6-3 win over the Boston Bruins at KeyBank Center on Sunday.

The win was Buffalo’s sixth straight at home and fourth straight overall.

Thompson upped his season goal total to 43, moving him ahead of Washington’s Alex Ovechkin for third in the NHL. Earlier Sunday, Ovechkin scored his 895th career goal to break Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record.

Alex Tuch and Rasmus Dahlin each contributed a goal and an assist to extend their point streaks to six games and three games, respectively. Jason Zucker scored a goal for the second straight game.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 17 saves for the victory.

Boston received goals from Elias Lindholm, Morgan Geekie and Casey Mittelstadt while David Pastrnak had three assists. Joonas Korpisalo made 30 saves.

The Sabres erased deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 in the contest. They outshot the Bruins 13-6 during the third period, which started as a 3-3 tie.

The victory concluded a back-to-back set at KeyBank Center, which opened with a 3-2 shootout win over Tampa Bay on Saturday night. The Sabres outshot their opponents by a combined tally of 75-45 in the two wins.

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Period

The Bruins jumped out to a 2-0 lead on goals from Lindholm and Geekie.

Lindholm opened the scoring 3:37 into the contest, the end result of a sequence that began with Luukkonen stopping Geekie on a breakaway. The Bruins retained possession and worked the puck to Pastrnak, whose shot-pass set up Lindholm with an open net.

Pastrnak forced a turnover at the Buffalo blue line to set up Geekie’s goal, scored from the slot with 5:33 remaining.

Buffalo went 0-for-2 on the power play in the period.

Second Period

The Sabres stormed back to tie the game on goals from Thompson and Tuch, then tied it again 3-3 on a late goal from Dahlin.

Thompson put Buffalo on the board 7:35 into the period, burying a loose puck after linemate Zach Benson outbattled two Bruins defenders in the blue paint.

Tuch deflected a shot from Dahlin to tie the score at 2-2 with 9:11 remaining in the period.

Boston regained the lead on Mittelstadt’s goal, scored off a rebound on the power play with 3:22 remaining. Dahlin answered less than two minutes later, toe-dragging toward the slot before beating Korpisalo with a wrist shot to his blocker side.

Third Period

Following an early save from Luukkonen on Vinni Lettieri, Zucker went the other way and took a shot on the rush that fluttered high into the net off of Korpisalo’s glove. (Zucker nearly scored in similar fashion on his next shift, but that time the puck landed on top of the net.)

The go-ahead goal extended Zucker’s point streak to four games.

Thompson sent a backhand shot in off the post on a breakaway for his second goal with 5:51 remaining. He completed the hat trick with an empty-net goal during the final minute.

PHOTO GALLERY

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      FINAL | Sabres 6 - Bruins 3

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          Tage Thompson addresses the media

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              Alex Tuch addresses the media

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                  Lindy Ruff addresses the media

                  UP NEXT

                  The Sabres visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday to open a three-game road trip. Coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m. with puck drop scheduled for 7.