Tage Thompson scored the last of Buffalo’s four second-period goals Saturday night as the Sabres overcame an early two-goal deficit to beat the visiting Philadelphia Flyers, 4-3.
Kyle Okposo, Rasmus Dahlin and Vinnie Hinostroza scored earlier in the second for the Sabres, who trailed 2-0 fewer than four minutes into the first.
Goalie Craig Anderson made 18 saves, including 10 in the third, as Buffalo (28-38-11, 67 points) improved to 8-5-3 in its last 16 games.
Joel Farabee and Owen Tippett scored in the first before Travis Konecny scored in the second for the Flyers (23-41-11, 57 points), who have lost four straight. Goalie Martin Jones recorded 25 saves.
Farabee opened the early surge for the Flyers 1:41 into the first.
Bobby Brink flicked the puck up the ice as he surged past Jacob Bryson at center ice and descended upon Anderson, who stopped Farabee on the breakaway but couldn’t prevent Farabee from tucking in the rebound.
The Flyers pushed the lead to 2-0 soon after.
Travis Sanheim and the Sabres’ Mattias Samuelsson each got a stick on the puck deep in the Buffalo zone before Tippett picked it up and scored on a point-blank backhanded shot in the slot at the 3:55 mark.
The Sabres began their comeback with a power play goal 3:17 into the second, when Okposo took a cross ice pass from Peyton Krebs and scored past a sprawling Jones.
Buffalo tied the score 5:10 later after Jeff Skinner, surrounded by four Flyers just after being hooked from behind by James Van Riemsdyk, found Dahlin, who fired a shot over Jones’ glove.
The Flyers scored and the Sabres tied it in a 90-second span later in the period.
Konecny raced down the right side of the net with Samuelsson behind him and squeezed the puck into the upper corner of the net with 5:54 left. Later, Hinostroza dashed in between Nate Thompson and Zack MacEwen and put back the rebound of a shot by Zemgus Girgensons.
A hooking call on Noah Cates generated the power play that yielded Thompson’s game-winner with 2:02 left. The right winger took a pass from Casey Mittelstadt and, with Sanheim screening Jones, sent a shot into the far side of the net.
–Field Level Media