Detroit, MI (WGR 550) - I don’t know who saw that coming in Detroit on Saturday. The Red Wings had a 4-1 lead over Buffalo until Josh Doan tipped in Rasmus Dahlin’s shot at 17:58 of the second period.
In the third period and overtime, Tage Thompson became the superstar that he is as he took over the game.
Early in the third on a short power play, Thompson got a few Grade-A chances and then all of a sudden he showed a vintage Thompson rush. Doan started it with a nifty backhand pass through his legs to Thompson to begin the breakout. Thompson blew around Alex DeBrincat in the left circle and used his reach to go around John Gibson and the puck was in the net as Simon Edvinsson was too late.
Trailing 4-3, Peyton Krebs took a tripping penalty and Ryan McLeod stripped Moritz Seider of the puck at the blue line and just turned on the jets, walking in clean on Gibson. His second shorthanded goal of the season completed the three-goal comeback. After the game Lindy Ruff said McLeod wasn’t supposed to be on the ice, he went out when Jordan Greenway was supposed to go.
The reason most of us didn’t see a three-goal comeback in the cards is Buffalo hadn’t done it since November 19, 2018 in Pittsburgh.
Before overtime started the Sabres got a too many men on the ice penalty with 2:33 left in regulation. A goal there likely wins the game for Detroit. The NHL’s No. 1 penalty kill did the job and off to overtime we went.
Thompson wasn’t done as he was doing anything he had to to win a hockey game. He came down on DeBrincat and sent him flying all the way to the back wall. Thompson wanted to shoot, but it was covered so instead he fed a wide open Mattias Samuelsson down the slot and the Sabres had their first road win of the season. Buffalo is now 1-5-2 on the road. Ruff loved what he saw from one of his best players who is finally playing like one of the Sabres best players,
“It was an incredible amount of will, look at what he did to the guy (DeBrincat) in overtime, he almost threw him through the end of the rink, it has to be our will, our desperation has to be greater than theirs to get back, we’ve got to do it for each other and I thought the guys went out and did a hell of a job.”
DeBrincat scored two goals in this game, but he killed them on the Thompson goal and the Samuelsson goal and was minus-3 on the game.
As for Thompso,n he knows what his role has to be on this team. In his last four games he has three goals and three assists for six points. Honestly he still wasn’t playing all that well until the third period in Carolina. As far as his performance tonight he said,
“We’ve been losing a lot of games and it’s frustrating and no one is going to sit there and feel sorry for us, so we tried to impose our will there and it’s not just one guy, it’s everybody pulling the rope in the same direction, ‘Ellie’ (Colten Ellis) makes some huge saves for us to keep it tight and the momentum in our favor and ‘Sammy’ coming through for us.”
Ellis is now 2-1-0 in the NHL with both wins coming against Detroit. He also picked up his first NHL assist on the Thompson goal.
Rasmus Dahlin made his return after visiting his recovering fiancee in Sweden and every player I spoke with talked about how inspired they were by him. Dahlin went right back into the lineup and had 27:05 on the ice to go with two assists.
Now in my mind this changes nothing. The Sabres were still 1-3-0 on the road trip and are six points out of a playoff spot with eight teams to leapfrog.
The next four games are at home against the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Chicago Blackhawks and Carolina Hurricanes. The Sabres had been doing well at home, but have lost three straight going 0-1-2. Overall Buffalo is 5-3-2 at home and nothing short of going 4-0-0 in this homestand is going to get them back into the playoff race.
Ruff breaks the season down in five-game segments and told his team to make the playoffs, they must take six out of every 10 points. Buffalo has completed three of the five-game segments and have only reached their goal once.
2-3-0= 4 pts
2-1-2= 6 pts
1-2-2= 4 pts
1-2-0= 2 pts (Beating Edmonton and Calgary would get them to six points)
The Sabres have Sunday off and host the Oilers on Monday.