Thompson has 3 points, Sabres hold off Senators

OTTAWA -- Tage Thompson had two goals and an assist for the Buffalo Sabres, who hung on for a 6-4 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday.

"I think we did everything right up until the very end,” Thompson said. “That's why we won. It just came down to compete [level] tonight. I think obviously that team works extremely hard, and they're willing to get into a track meet. I think, for us, it was about making sure we were strong in the middle of the ice, letting them force stuff at our blue line and try to get our offense from that, and just making sure that we're not turning pucks over, that we were smart with it.”

Jeff Skinner scored twice, Alex Tuch had a goal and an assist, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 34 saves in his season debut for the Sabres (3-4-0), who lost 3-1 to the Montreal Canadiens on Monday. Casey Mittelstadt had two assists.

"I thought it was a great combination,” Buffalo coach Don Granato said of his team’s defensive-zone coverage. “I thought [Luukkonen] was big and strong and tall, and I thought the defensemen defended the sides of him very well. So, there was nothing backdoor, backside without a lot of contested effort by our defensemen."

Vladimir Tarasenko and Mathieu Joseph each had a goal and an assist for the Senators (3-3-0), who went 3-2-0 on their first homestand of the season. Anton Forsberg allowed five goals on 18 shots before being replaced prior to the third period by Joonas Korpisalo, who made five saves.

“Obviously, you want better tonight,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said of Forsberg. “But you have to look at it -- are [shots] tipped? Are they not tipped? And if the goalie can’t see, he can’t see. But save percentage-wise, clearly you want [better], but [Forsberg’s] been really good for us, so guys are going to have off games. He’ll bounce back.”

Skinner gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 8:06 of the first period when he took a cross-ice pass from Tuch on a 2-on-1 and beat a sprawling Forsberg to the blocker side.

Zemgus Girgensons extended the lead to 2-0 at 11:20 when he tipped a Connor Clifton point shot.

Skinner made it 3-0 at 4:04 of the second period by banking the puck in off Forsberg’s skate from behind the goal line.

Jakob Chychrun cut it to 3-1 at 13:14. Travis Hamonic’s point shot ricocheted off the crossbar directly to Chychrun, who scored from the left face-off circle.

“Not happy, obviously,” Chychrun said. “I mean, this is a building we want to take a lot of pride in competing in every time we're here, and it just wasn't good enough. I think it's good on us for sticking with it there in the third and making a push, but it's just, we can't put ourselves in that situation.”

Tuch pushed it to 4-1 on the power play at 17:08 when he tipped a Rasmus Dahlin point shot. 

"I thought we played a really good game for almost a full 60 minutes,” Tuch said. “I know there was a little chaos in the end there, a couple penalties and power plays and stuff, but you know what, I thought [Luukkonen] played really well and it was a good team win."

Thompson increased the lead to 5-1 at 18:48 when he redirected an Owen Power point shot. It gave Thompson his first multipoint game of the season.

"I'm sure there's more to come out of him,” Granato said of Thompson. “I've been saying that he's been doing the right things. He's obviously putting the effort in. Two games ago, he had 10 shots in the game, so he's doing the right things. It's inevitable when you have that type of skill."

Ottawa scored three times in 3:23 to pull within one.

Tarasenko cut it to 5-2 at 15:35 of the third period when he converted a pass from Thomas Chabot below the left circle.

Josh Norris brought the Senators within 5-3 on the power play at 18:38 when he one-timed a cross-crease pass from Drake Batherson.

Joseph cut it to 5-4 at 18:58 on a snap shot at the edge of the crease.

“It's not time to panic. We did a lot of good things,” Ottawa forward Claude Giroux said. “It's definitely frustrating the way the first two periods went, but we know what we're capable of and we need to look at a few things, how we can get better and be more consistent in how we play, because we've shown ... that we can play the right way and find ways to win."

Thompson scored a short-handed goal into an empty net for the 6-4 final at 19:37.

"It felt great,” Luukkonen said of watching the puck roll into the net at the other end. “Mostly because it's great to start with a win. It's not the optimal situation to have my first game now, but getting the win out of it and feeling like I played a good game and helped the team win, getting the last goal really took some pressure off.”

NOTES: Dahlin extended his point streak to six games (seven assists). There have been four point streaks of that length by Sabres defensemen in the past 20 years; Dahlin has three.