Zachary L’Heureux and Matthew Wood scored for the Predators (28-27-8), who have lost four of their past five games (1-3-1). Juuse Saros made 21 saves.
“I thought we played a good hockey game. It was a battle,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. “Unfortunate we start the third period with that goal against and having to chase it. I thought our game was in a really good spot. Lost some momentum there in the second, a couple of little mistakes that we made, but we had our looks at the end, didn’t go in. Lot of good in the game. Kind of a playoff-type game where there wasn’t a lot of room. They’re a really good team.”
L’Heureux’s first of the season gave the Predators a 1-0 lead at 1:17 of the second period. Jonathan Marchessault sent a centering pass from the right corner to L’Heureux in the left face-off circle, where he buried a wrist shot over Lyon’s blocker. Marchessault’s assist was his 300th in the NHL.
Thompson received a feed from Alex Tuch in the right circle and put a wrist shot that deflected in off Tyson Jost’s stick to get by Saros and tie it 1-1 at 12:39.
“Incredible shot,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “He says to me sometimes, ‘I can score from there.’ Whenever I mention maybe he should have passed, he says, ‘Well, I can score from there.’ And he does. He’s scored a lot of important goals for us. That was an important goal to get some energy in the building and get us going on the right track.”
Zucker put Buffalo ahead 2-1 at 14:17 when he banged the puck in after a shot from Jack Quinn squeaked through Saros and rolled towards the goal line.
“It was good for us to have a tough period and have to respond to it,” Zucker said of the first period, in which the Sabres had only two shots on goal. “Especially this time of year. … Everyone’s in playoff mode right now. It was good for us to be able to regroup after a tough first period and come out and play our game in the second and third.”
Doan made it 3-1 just 16 seconds into the third period, taking a Josh Norris saucer pass from the goal line and beating Saros with a snap shot from the low slot inside the left post.