At The Final Horn | Sabres top Penguins in shootout

Tage Thompson scored twice and added another in the shootout as the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Wednesday at KeyBank Center.
Buffalo never trailed in the game, but the Penguins came back to tie the match three separate times.
In the shootout, Thompson and Alex Tuch scored to lift Buffalo to victory. Craig Anderson made 23 saves and stopped two more in the shootout.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang were Pittsburgh's goal scorers. Casey DeSmith stopped 30 shots and made one save in the shootout.
The Sabres are now 2-2 in shootouts this season. Wednesday marked the team's third-straight game to go past regulation. Buffalo has now won three in a row and five of its last six.
On the power play Wednesday, Buffalo finished 0-for-3 and went 0-for-2 on the penalty kill.

How it happened

Thompson opened the scoring with 2:45 remaining in the first period. He one-timed a behind-the-net pass from Mattias Samuelsson top shelf on the short side for his 26th goal of the year.
The Penguins had a power play carry over into the second period and Crosby tied things up 26 seconds in when he connected on a Bryan Rust pass in the slot.

Girgensons scored with 4:04 left in the second to put Buffalo back in the lead. After winning a battle behind the net, he left the puck for Kyle Okposo, who then dished it back out front for Girgensons to finish the play.
Pittsburgh tied the game again with 1:14 left in the middle frame when a centering feed by Malkin from behind the net went in off Anderson's stick and in.
Just 1:01 into the third, Thompson put Buffalo up 3-2 when he cashed in on a Tuch cross.
The Penguins tied the game for a third time when Letang fired home a power-play goal with 4:56 remaining in regulation.
The teams traded chances and wore each other out in overtime. Pittsburgh outshot Buffalo 2-1 in the extra period.

Then in the shootout, Thompson scored to open the skills competition. Then Anderson stopped Rust and DeSmith turned aside a backhand attempt by Casey Mittelstadt. Anderson denied Crosby in the bottom of the second round before Tuch closed the game out with a goal.

Roll the highlight film

Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams was on the TNT broadcast when Thompson scored in the third period:

Worthy of a mention

Thompson is now tied for 10th in the NHL with six multi-goal games this season. He also has six points (4+2) in his last five games and 11 points (7+4) in his last 10 home games.

Coming up

The Sabres will play again at home on Friday against the Washington Capitals. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale now.
Buffalo will wear its Heritage Classic jerseys for the game.
If you can't make it to the game, catch the action on MSG and WGR 550 with pregame coverage on MSG starting at 6:30.