Thompson has goal, assist for Sabres in win against Flames

Tage Thompson had a goal and an assist to help the Buffalo Sabres to a 4-1 win against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary on Sunday.

JJ Peterka and Peyton Krebs scored for the Sabres (34-33-5), who had lost two straight and three of four before closing out a season-long five-game road trip with a victory. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 32 saves.

"It's been a tough trip," Thompson said. "I thought we played some really good hockey, and obviously we had some stretches where not good enough, not happy. It's good to head home with a win under our belt and kind of keep that momentum going into our next one."

Buffalo is six points back of the Washington Capitals, who have two games in hand, for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.

"I think one game at a time," Thompson said. "Can't look too far ahead. In order to get there, we've got to take care of the next game. We have a short-term mindset, a short memory. Obviously, with this win it feels good, but we've got to make sure we're ready for the puck drop on our next game as well."

Jonathan Huberdeau scored, and Dustin Wolf made 25 saves for the Flames (33-32-5), who have lost three straight and six of eight, including 4-2 at the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.

Calgary is 12 points behind the Vegas Golden Knights for the second wild card from the West.

"We can only control our own games and what's going to happen," Flames captain Mikael Backlund said. "Losing two games, teams winning, it makes the playoff hopes smaller of course. We all know that. But at the end of the day, you have to go out there and work hard every day and enjoy whatever's left of this year, and we'll see where it takes us."

Peterka gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead at 11:04 of the third period when he one-timed a centering pass from Thompson from behind the net.

Thompson scored into an empty net to push it to 3-1 at 19:15. He has seven points (three goals, four assists) in a five-game point streak.

Connor Clifton scored another empty-net goal with two seconds remaining for the 4-1 final.

"It was a good start," Krebs said. "I think we played the way we wanted to off the hop. The second we kind of lost it a little bit, I think. We cleaned up our details in the third, and J.J. got that nice goal. Doing things the right way, playing simple, and it got the job done."

Krebs put Buffalo ahead 1-0 at 4:53 of the first period on the Sabres' first shot of the game. He beat Wolf with a wrist shot from the left face-off circle on a rush.

"It was nice to score in general, whether I'm here or anywhere, for sure," said Krebs, who is from Calgary. "Obviously, with my family here, it's special having some really close people here that have been through a lot. To score for them is special."

Huberdeau tied it 1-1 at 10:35 of the second period when his centering pass from the right circle deflected in off Owen Power's stick for a power-play goal.

"Obviously, a lucky bounce," Huberdeau said. "Our [power play] has been struggling, but I don't really care about that goal. It's more the way we've got to play and the way we have to come out more as a team and play better for the rest of the season."

Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin left the game after getting hit in the head with a shot from Daniil Miromanov that was tipped by Connor Zary with 3:47 remaining in regulation. Dahlin will "take a few stitches, but he's good," Sabres coach Don Granato said.

NOTES: Tuch, who had the secondary assist on Peterka's goal, has seven points (one goal, six assists) in a five-game point streak. ... Luukkonen has 17 wins since Jan. 1, the second-most in the NHL behind Alexandar Georgiev of the Colorado Avalanche and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning (18).