At the Horn | Sabres 5 - Senators 2

Alex Tuch extended his goal-scoring streak to four games and the Buffalo Sabres won 5-2 over the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday.

Buffalo has won five of its last six games and scored 24 goals in its last four games, fueled by several individual hot streaks that continued against the Senators.

Tuch, who buried a rebound to open the scoring in the first period, has six goals in the last six contests and 32 this season. He added an assist on Ryan McLeod’s empty-net goal, giving him consecutive multi-point performances.

McLeod finished with a goal and an assist, upping his career-best season point total to 49 (19+30) including 11 in the last six games. Peyton Krebs scored for the second straight game and Jack Quinn tallied an assist, both extending their point streaks to five games.

Rasmus Dahlin also had a goal and an assist. Tage Thompson scored his 39th goal of the season, giving him sole possession of second place in the NHL.

James Reimer won his fifth straight start in goal with 33 saves, anchoring a 4-for-4 night for the Buffalo penalty kill. Mattias Samuelsson led all Sabres with 4:56 of shorthanded ice time and also had two assists and a plus-4 rating.

Claude Giroux and Jake Sanderson scored goals for the Senators. Linus Ullmark made 17 saves.

Buffalo completed a four-game sweep of its season series with Ottawa.

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Period

The Sabres scored a pair of goals and killed off three penalties to carry a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

Tuch backhanded a rebound off Ullmark’s right pad to open the scoring with 11:22 remaining in the period. The rebound came off a shot from the point by Mattias Samuelsson.

Dahlin added the next Buffalo goal 3:13 later. Jack Quinn shoved Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot off the puck behind the Ottawa net and passed to Dahlin, who buried his one-timer from the point.

Reimer made 13 saves in the period to anchor the shutdown effort from the Buffalo penalty kill. His period included a point-blank stop to rob Shane Pinto’s backhand attempt less than a minute prior to Dahlin’s goal.

Second Period

Thompson dangled around Senators forward Drake Batherson as he skated toward the net, dished right to JJ Peterka, then buried a return feed from point-blank range to extend Buffalo’s lead to 3-1 with 7:24 remaining in the period.

The Senators answered 70 seconds later with a goal from Giroux, who scored as the trailing man on a rush.

Third Period

Krebs intercepted a pass from Dylan Cozens in the neutral zone and buried his breakaway shot off the far-side post to extend Buffalo’s lead to 4-2 with 10:01 remaining.

Ottawa issued another quick response, this time with Sanderson’s goal scored through traffic from the half wall.

It was as close as the Senators would come, however, as the Sabres killed off a fourth and final penalty, received a timely save from Reimer on a point-blank one-timer from Tim Stutzle, and sealed the win on McLeod’s empty-net goal during the final minute.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

PHOTO GALLERY

Up next

The Sabres return home to host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. Tickets are available here.

Coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m. with puck drop scheduled for 7.