Tage Thompson brought the scoring punch. Alex Tuch brought the juice.
Thompson scored two goals in the Buffalo Sabres’ 5-2 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday at KeyBank Center, but Tuch’s preseason debut gave his team a pronounced lift.
Tuch, a right wing, wasn’t overly gracious to himself in his personal assessment of his first preseason game. Granted, he didn’t have much of a sample size to work with, prior to Saturday. He missed the first two days of training camp with an undisclosed injury and didn’t play in the Sabres’ first three preseason games.
“A little slow start, in the first period,” Tuch said. “It felt like I was, a little bit, thinking too much out there, but you just try to start skating, and I think our whole team played pretty well, so that made it a lot easier on me. Just try to feel the flow of the game.”
Don’t tell that to his teammates, particularly Thompson, whose two goals included a power-play tally off an assist by Tuch that opened the Sabres’ lead to 4-2, 37 seconds into the third period.
“He’s a big impact player for us, any time we have him in the lineup,” said Thompson, who has three goals in three preseason games. “It’s big. It’s nice to see him step right in, after being out a little bit, and it looks like he’s been playing 40 games, already. He’s in great shape. He’s a freak of nature.”
With Ian Mitchell serving a delay-of-game penalty called against Red Wings goalie Sebastian Cossa (16 saves) early in the third, Josh Norris was initially unable to settle the puck for a shot attempt to the right side of the goal. The Red Wings defense zeroed in on Norris hovering near the net, and the center passed the puck to Tuch, who found Thompson in the left circle, and Thompson one-timed Tuch’s pass past Cossa.
The ‘Alex Tuch Effect’ was real, by that point, as the Sabres limited the Red Wings to seven shots on goal in the third period, even while only putting three on Cossa, before Norris’ empty-net goal with 13 seconds left.
“He really skated well,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said of Tuch. “He found his legs. A lot of good stuff. It’s great to see him back in. He’s a big part of our power play and a big part of our penalty killing and worked hard for our team to get him back in there. He might have thought he started a little slow, but I thought he started okay and just got better.”
Tuch played 18 minutes in 21 shifts against the Red Wings, including 2:43 on the Sabres power play and 1:58 on the penalty kill.
Tuch teamed with left wing Jason Zucker and center Ryan McLeod on the Sabres’ second line, then skated primarily with Thompson, Norris, Zucker and Dahlin on the power play, and with McLeod and Conor Timmins on the Sabres’ penalty kill.
“The guys know that he’s an important piece,” Ruff said. “Any time we get him back in the lineup, it gives us strength down our lineup, with our lines.
“It just keeps adding more depth.”
But this could be one of the few preseason games for Tuch. He expects to play in at least one more of the Sabres’ final two preseason games, at 7 p.m. Wednesday against Pittsburgh and 7 p.m. Friday at Pittsburgh, before the season opens Oct. 9 against the New York Rangers at KeyBank Center.
“This one’s kind of to get cobwebs out, the next one starts you off good, and then we should be right in the stride,” Tuch said. “The fact we’re changing to (players with 100 or more NHL games playing a maximum) two preseason games next year just shows you how most of the league is comfortable with playing two.”
Tuch, though, said he was ready to get back on the ice.
“Sitting up top and watching the game from upstairs isn’t fun, ever,” Tuch said. “It was a little bit of a couple snafus there, but we figured it out, and it’s good to be back.”
Mrtka’s first tally
Defenseman Radim Mrtka, the Sabres’ first-round pick in the NHL Draft in June, scored his first preseason goal. Mrtka gave the Sabres a 2-0 lead at 12:17 of the second, as his shot off a feed from Konsta Helenius from above the left circle bounced off Costa and dribbled into the goal.
Mrtka has played in three of the Sabres’ first four preseason games and worked with Jacob Bryson on the Sabres’ third defensive pairing Saturday.
“Any time you get drafted and step into the NHL or play NHL games, it’s a tough adjustment, and he’s looked pretty natural,” Thompson said. “I can speak from experience, as a bigger guy (6-foot-6), it takes a little bit to kind of find your footing and get used to your body, but he’s looked pretty natural out there, moves well for a big guy, he’s positionally sound and I think he’s going to continue to get better. As he plays more preseason games and gets that experience, his confidence is going to grow, as well.”
Sabres cuts
Speaking of Mrkta, he remains in Sabres training camp, and so does defenseman Ryan Johnson. The Sabres announced Saturday that they have assigned 24 players to Rochester, which opens its AHL training camp Monday. Among the players sent to Rochester, goalie Devon Levi, forwards Helenius and Isak Rosen, and defenseman Jack Rathbone; Rathbone needs to clear waivers.
Here’s the full list of players who head to Rochester:
Forwards (14): Helenius, Rosen, Matteo Costantini, Riley Fiddler-Schultz, Jagger Joshua, Tyler Kopff, Trevor Kuntar, Olivier Nadeau, Viktor Neuchev, Red Savage, Graham Slaggert, Peter Tischke, Anton Wahlberg, Brendan Warren.
Defensemen (7): Rathbone, Isaac Belliveau, Aidan Fulp, Vsevolod Komarov, Noah Laaouan, Zach Metsa, Nikita Novikov.
Goalies (3): Levi, Topias Leinonen, Scott Ratzlaff.
Local officiating ties
Two on-ice officials from West Seneca worked Saturday’s preseason game at KeyBank Center: Alex Lepkowski, who was drafted by the Sabres in the fifth round of the 2011 NHL draft, and who debuted as an NHL referee in April, and linesman James Tobias, a Canisius University graduate and a longtime NHL official.
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Rachel Lenzi
News sports reporter
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