Rasmus Dahlin and Alex Tuch each had a goal and an assist for the visiting Buffalo Sabres in a 5-2 win against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
Mattias Samuelsson had two assists, and James Reimer made 33 saves for the Sabres (32-36-6, 70 points), who won all four meetings against Ottawa this season and five of their past six contests overall.
Tage Thompson, Peyton Krebs and Ryan McLeod scored the Sabres’ other goals.
Claude Giroux and Jake Sanderson tallied for the Senators (39-29-6, 84 points), who have lost five of their past eight games (3-4-1). Linus Ullmark turned aside 17 shots.
Tuch gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 8:38 of the first period. Samuelsson fired a shot from the left point that Ullmark stopped. However, the goalie didn’t realize the rebound landed by his right pad, and Tuch quickly swept it by Ullmark’s skate.
Ottawa had one of its best chances to pull even midway through the first on a three-on-one rush, with Michael Amadio centering a pass to Shane Pinto, but Reimer stayed with it to deny him.
Dahlin made it 2-0 at 11:51 of the first. Jack Quinn won a battle against Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot and dished the puck to Dahlin at the left point. Dahlin blasted a one-timer that beat Ullmark to the top corner on the blocker side.
Thompson pushed Buffalo’s lead to 3-0 at 12:36 of the second period. With the teams at four-on-four, JJ Peterka carried the puck along the right side and dropped it for Thompson, who went around Drake Batherson to the slot before dishing it back to Peterka below the right circle. Peterka then sent it in front to Thompson, who buried his 39th of the season.
Giroux narrowed it to 3-1 just over a minute later when he took a feed from Tyler Kleven in the slot and beat Reimer to the glove side at 13:46.
Krebs intercepted Dylan Cozens’ pass in the neutral zone and skated to the slot before firing it past Ullmark’s glove to make it 4-1 at 9:59 of the second.
Just 23 seconds later, Sanderson’s wrist shot from the left wall beat Reimer far side to cut the deficit to 4-2.
McLeod scored a short-handed empty-net goal at 17:21 for the 5-2 final.
