Sabres' strong effort comes up short in loss to Blues

ST. LOUIS -Tage Thompson briefly tied the score with a third-period goal, but a quick response by the St. Louis Blues made the difference in a 5-3 loss for the Sabres at Enterprise Center on Friday.
Thompson scored on his seventh shot of the night, a power-play goal that beat goaltender Ville Husso from the slot with 7:26 to play in the third period. It was his team-leading 21st goal and 39th point, scored against the team that drafted him in the first round in 2016.
The Blues pounced on a turnover just 37 seconds later, turning a 2-on-1 rush into a Colton Parayko goal that put them back ahead, 4-3. Brayden Schenn added an empty-net goal during the final minute.

"It's always nice to score, but I think the main thing was winning," Thompson said. "I really wanted to win that one. Everyone in the room did, too. It stings a little bit more, especially when you play well like that. It was a tough one to swallow."
The Sabres outshot the Blues, 38-23. It was a rebound effort following losses in Columbus and Montreal in which players felt they strayed from their identity.
"We had better energy tonight," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "We were battling some things behind the scenes the other night. I felt we had way better energy tonight. We executed, we were sharper, we were much better and gave ourselves a chance to at least get a point out of that game. Maybe we deserved more, but we just couldn't get it done.
"Just some costly, simple mistakes that shouldn't happen. Unfortunately, they happen. You have to learn from them. They have to make you better; they have to make you stronger. Just disappointing that a couple little things were the difference."

Dylan Cozens opened the scoring for the Sabres just 1:25 into the contest. Jordan Kyrou put the Blues ahead with two goals - one on a power play and the other shortly after one had expired.
Kyle Okposo tied the game, 2-2, early in the second. That score held until Jake Walman buried a rebound to put the Blues ahead with just 35 seconds left in the period.
"We just needed to keep playing the same way, nothing to change," Okposo said. "I thought we did that in the third, just a bit of a Ping Pong battle the first eight minutes or so. … We just continued to play our game. We played a good hockey game tonight, we just needed to make a couple less mistakes and I think that game's ours."
Thompson's goal came on the Sabres' fifth power play of the night. They had six shots with the extra man against Husso, whose 1.97 goals-against average ranked second in the NHL among goaltenders with at least 10 games played entering Friday.
"We needed to - believe or not - have just one more increment of patience on the power play," Granato said. "They're an experienced team, a veteran team and we actually were a little bit anxious on the first power plays. We settled a bit, which made us more assertive."

Okposo returns

Okposo, who missed Wednesday's game in Montreal with a non-COVID illness, made his presence felt early and often. He intercepted a pass in front of the offensive blue line to begin the sequence that led to Cozens' goal.

Cozens returned the favor early in the second period when he won an offensive-zone draw back to Rasmus Dahlin, who shot from the point. Okposo nabbed the deflection for his 13th goal.

"He's unbelievable," Thompson said of Okposo. "He's a rock for us. Obviously, he's a great leader and he's one of those guys that, he shows up, he works every single night. There's no nights off for him. That's something we've got to follow.
"All the young guys, all the guys learning, we've got to take a page out of his book and I think that will help our consistency on a game-to-game basis."

Up next

The road trip continues Sunday in Dallas. Coverage on MSG begins at 6:30 p.m. The puck drops at 7.