Thompson’s 3 Point Effort Helps Sabres Take Down Devils, 4-3

Sunday afternoon, the Buffalo Sabres aimed to grab their first win of the season against the New Jersey Devils, who beat them twice at the NHL Global Series in October. This time, a strong start propelled them to a 4-3 victory over the Devils. Tage Thompson led the charge, picking up three points. The Sabres improve to 21-26-5; the Devils fall to 29-19-6.

The Devils opened up the first with some quality chances, but Luukkonen stood tall. From there, the script flipped. Tage Thompson picked up a loose puck and fired it past Jake Allen to make it 1-0. Then, a Devils’ defensive breakdown and strong pressure from Thompson led to a JJ Peterka goal. The Devils received a power play late to attempt to close the gap, but Ryan McLeod got a shorthanded breakaway and capitalized to make it 3-0 at the first intermission.

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— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) February 2, 2025

The second frame was all Sabres to start, but they couldn’t capitalize on their plethora of chances. Then things got interesting as Paul Cotter pulled the Devils within two, sneaking one just barely past the goal line during a wild scramble. But the Sabres continued to put pressure on and got rewarded with a late Jason Zucker goal to restore their three-goal lead.

Nico Daws replaced Allen in net as head coach Sheldon Keefe tried to spark the Devils in the third. Just 18 seconds in, Cotter sniped one from a pretty crazy angle to cut the Sabres’ lead to 4-2. With 14:49 to go, Stefan Noesen got his elbow up on Tage Thomspon and was called for a five-minute major. But just a few seconds into it, Jack Hughes scored his first career shorthanded goal to make it 4-3. The Sabres didn’t score once on the advantage.

The Devils got a power play with a little over seven minutes to go, but no dice. Then they got another one with over four minutes, but Timo Meier took a penalty halfway through to negate it. The Sabres staved off the Devils’ effort with the extra attacker and sealed it.