ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Tage Thompson had three goals and two assists, Zach Benson added a goal and two assists, and the Buffalo Sabres scored six consecutive goals during a 7-6 victory over the struggling Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.
Thompson’s 10th career hat trick tied him with Alexander Mogilny and Danny Gare for the third-most in Sabres history. One night before his 29th birthday, Thompson scored twice in 15 seconds in the second period, skating
around Anaheim’s inert defense for a breakaway third goal that sent a dozen hats flying onto the Honda Center ice.
Tyson Kozak, Noah Ostlund and Jack Quinn also scored and Colten Ellis made 28 saves for the Sabres, who roared back from an early two-goal deficit and then hung on to improve to 2-0-1 on their four-game trip.
Roger McQueen scored his first NHL goal and Cutter Gauthier ended his nine-game drought with two goals for the Ducks, who led 3-1 in the first period before getting blitzed 6-0 by Buffalo over the next 35 minutes.
Tristan Luneau and Beckett Sennecke scored for Anaheim in the final 1:08 with Ville Husso pulled for an extra attacker, but the Sabres survived.
Captain Mikael Granlund scored and Leo Carlsson had three assists in the Ducks' seventh loss in eight games. Husso stopped 23 shots for Anaheim, which is without injured defensemen Pavel Mintyukov and Ian Moore on its already shallow blue line.
After Granlund and Gauthier got power-play goals 57 seconds apart, McQueen put the Ducks up 3-1 with a rebound goal from the slot. The 6-foot-5 center made Anaheim's roster out of training camp at 20 years old, but hadn't yet scored an NHL point.
But Ostlund scored only Buffalo's fifth power-play goal of the season midway through the first before Thompson tied it with his sixth goal. The Sabres dominated the second period, and Thompson finally put them ahead with a one-timer off a faceoff win by Peyton Krebs, who had three assists.
Sabres: At Los Angeles on Saturday.
Ducks: Host Ottawa on Sunday.
___
See AP’s full NHL coverage here
