Something about playing against the Detroit Red Wings seems to agree with Buffalo Sabres forward Tage Thompson, be it during regular season play or in Saturday afternoon’s instance, pre-season play.
Thompson scored twice as part of Buffalo’s 5-2 win over the Red Wings at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. With the setback, the Red Wings are now 2-2 through four pre-season games.
Thompson has 23 points in the 19 regular season games that he’s played against the Red Wings, including 12 goals, the highest number of tallies he has against any other team in his NHL career.
While his goals on Saturday won’t officially be added to his total, it continued a trend of overall dominating play on Thompson’s part against Detroit.
His first goal came just 14 seconds into the second period, while his second tally was with the man-advantage in the third period. In both instances, it restored a two-goal cushion for Buffalo.
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The Sabres initially grabbed a 2-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes of play thanks to tallies from Rasmus Dahlin and Radim Mrtka. Buffalo native Patrick Kane halved the Sabres’ lead with his first goal of the pre-season late in the frame.
Also scoring for Detroit was Marco Kasper, who put home a rebound past former Red Wings goaltender Alex Lyon a bit past the midway point of the second period to bring his club back to within a goal.
Josh Norris added an empty net goal for Buffalo in the waning seconds of regulation.
Sebastian Cossa played the entire game for the Red Wings and stopped 16 of the 20 shots that he faced. Lyon, who was not re-signed by the Red Wings and accepted a two-year contract with the Sabres, made 26 saves.
The Red Wings will return to Little Caesars Arena for a Monday evening matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins (7:00 p.m. ET, ESPN+).
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