At The Final Horn | Sabres fall in first game in Seattle

Dustin Tokarski made 33 saves and gave the Buffalo Sabres a chance in their 5-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday.
Tokarski stopped 28 of 30 shots in the first two periods alone. Buffalo entered the third period tied, but Seattle pounced and scored three goals in the third.
Tage Thompson and Kyle Okposo scored for Buffalo as they close out their West Coast road trip with a 1-3-0 record.
Jordan Eberle recorded a hat trick for the Kraken and Morgan Geekie also scored. Jaden Schwartz added an empty netter to go with a pair of assists. Philipp Grubauer stopped 19 Sabres shots.

Buffalo's power play went 1-for-3 and the penalty kill finished 4-for-4.

How it happened

Tokarski kept Buffalo in the game, especially early when he stopped 13 of the 14 shots he faced in the first period. He stopped Brandon Tanev on a shorthanded breakaway 6:23 in and made another great stop on Jamie Oleksiak at the 8:25 mark.
The Kraken finally broke through with 4:18 remaining in the first period when Geekie one-timed a shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle past Tokarski to open the scoring.
Seattle wrapped up the first period with 26 shot attempts to Buffalo's 10.
Thompson maneuvered through the neutral zone and with three Kraken converging and wired a shot from the slot that beat Grubauer 6:27 into the second period and tie the game.

Buffalo took the lead with 2:01 left in the second. On the power play, Okposo wristed a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle, through an effective screen by Zemgus Girgensons and scored top shelf.
Seattle responded 26 seconds later when Eberle roofed a shortside shot over Tokarski's glove.
Eberle struck again just 1:50 into the third period when he cut in on goal from the left wing and beat Tokarski stick side.
He completed the hat trick at the 8:06 mark of the third.
Schwartz's empty net goal came with 1:17 left in regulation.
Buffalo was outshot 38-21. Shot attempts favored Seattle 57-41.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Thompson's great shot:

Worthy of a mention

• Rasmus Asplund recorded an assist on Thompson's goal to extend his point streak to five games (3+3).
• The Sabres are now 14-3-2 all-time in the first game against teams that joined the league via expansion after 1970. Buffalo is 10-4-5 all-time in the team's first road game against a new expansion team.

Coming up

Buffalo returns home for a match on Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings. Faceoff is at 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550 with pregame coverage on MSG starting at 6:30. Tickets are on sale now.