Ottawa Senators at Buffalo Sabres

Tage Thompson scores twice as Sabres beat Senators 5-3

JJ Peterka, Peyton Krebs and Dylan Cozens also scored for the Sabres, who have won three of four. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 25 saves.

“When he has that confidence, he’s just making guys look silly out there,” Cozens said of Thompson. “Those two goals were pretty hard shots. That’s the Tage we all know and love and hopefully we see a lot more of that the second half of the year.”

Claude Giroux had two goals for the Senators, who have lost five straight. Vladimir Tarasenko also scored.

“We turned it on in the third but we have to do it the whole game,” Giroux said. “It sucks right now. I don’t know if it’s confidence ... I don’t think it’s lack of effort. But yeah, we’ve just got to be better.”

Joonas Korpisalo made 21 saves after replacing the injured Anton Forsberg in net for Ottawa. Forsberg stopped six of seven shots before he suffered a groin injury late in the first period while attempting a kick save. He needed assistance getting off the ice and to the locker room.

Senators coach Jacques Martin said Forsberg will get an MRI on Friday.

Peterka opened the scoring midway through the first period following a strong setup by Cozens, who skated around Senators defenseman Erik Brannstrom in the right circle to set up Peterka’s 13th goal of the season.

Tarasenko tied the game at 1-1 with 4:54 left in the first on a long shot from the point with traffic in front of the Buffalo net. It was his 600th career point.

Thompson then put the Sabres in control with back-to-back goals, the first on a wrist shot to the blocker side with 2:32 left in the first. He scored again just over two minutes later, firing a hard wrist shot into the top corner of the net to give Buffalo a 3-1 lead.

Krebs made it 4-1 in the second on a give-and-go passing sequence with Eric Robinson. Krebs ended up with an open net for his third goal of the season.

Giroux made it 4-2 33 seconds into the third, flipping a loose puck into the net with a backhand shot.

Giroux picked up his second of the game with 8:45 remaining on a low slap shot to cut Buffalo’s lead to 4-3.

“I liked the way we came back,” Martin said. “I thought that we made some mistakes that cost us goals, but I liked the way we rallied in the third period. I think there was a good confidence for the guys.”

Cozens added an empty-netter for Buffalo with 3 seconds remaining.

UP NEXT

Senators: Begin a four-game homestand on Saturday against San Jose.

Sabres: Host Vancouver on Saturday.

BUF leads series 2-1