Sabres stay in playoff hunt with shootout win

DETROIT (AP)-- Tage Thompson scored his 45th objective of the season, Dylan Cozens had 2 goals and the Buffalo Sabres lasted longer than the Detroit Red Wings 7-6 in a shootout Thursday night.

Henri Jokiharju, Zemgus Girgensons and Jordan Greenway also scored for the Sabres, and Devon Levi made 26 saves.

" One-on-one versus Dylan Larkin is a quite insane method to finish up your very first shootout," Levi stated. "The people played a terrific video game and I just wanted to give them a chance to get the win. Even when they got the late goal to tie it, I knew we still had a chance to win in overtime.

" And when we didn't get an objective there, I knew we had an opportunity in the shootout."

Alex Tuch and Jack Quinn scored in the shootout.

" Every video game takes on a life of its own, which one handled a monstrous life tonight," Sabres coach Don Granato stated. "I'm just trying to manage everything and keep men positive. You certainly can't afford to dwell on mistakes in a video game like that."

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Thompson is the very first Sabres player to reach 45 or more objectives in a single season given that Alexander Mogilny (76) and Pat LaFontaine (53) did so in 1992-93. Thompson likewise has 91 points, ending up being the very first Sabres gamer to reach that mark because Daniel Brière had 95 in 2006-07.

Larkin, Austin Czarnik, Alex Chiasson, Simon Edvinsson, Jonatan Berggren and David Perron scored in policy for the Red Wings. Lucas Raymond scored the only shootout objective for Detroit, and Ville Husso made 30 saves.

With Florida and the New York Islanders winning Thursday night, the Red Wings were removed from playoff contention.

" This group could have quickly-- and maybe must have-- simply stop," Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde stated. "They actually went the other method. That's points in 5 of our last 6 and we're going through playoff groups, groups that are playing for their lives and a couple of the very best groups in the league.

" That's a credit to the guys and I believe it's really essential going into next year."

Larkin's goal was his 32nd, connecting his career high, initially embeded in the 2018-19 season.

" I think there's certainly more wish for next season," Larkin said. "Again, tonight's game we had the message where we're gon na be battling with these guys. We weren't excellent against them this year, however tonight was definitely much better. It was definitely a much better fight level. We were far more engaged tonight."

With 3 helps Thursday, Owen Power has 6 in the last five games. He's the very first Sabres rookie defenseman with six or more helps in a five-game stretch considering that Nikita Zadorov did from Jan. 18-Feb. 8, 2015.

… Raymond's 3 assists gave him 101 points for the season and he is the third-youngest Red Wings player to reach the 100-point mark at 21 years, nine days. Present Detroit executive vice president and general supervisor Steve Yzerman was 19 years, 274 days old and Gordie Howe was 20 years, 350 days old when they hit 100 points.

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Sabres host the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday.