Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Tage Thompson team to lead Sabres to 10th consecutive win
The Buffalo Sabres pursue a franchise record of 11 consecutive wins, after a 4-1 win Wednesday at Dallas.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen didn’t let a goal 15 seconds into the game bother him.
The Buffalo Sabres didn’t let it bother them, either. After all, there was still 59 minutes, 45 seconds left to play against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday at American Airlines Center.
The Sabres maximized all of that time in front of them, to earn a 4-1 win against the Stars, one of the Western Conference’s top teams.
Bowen Byram scored the go-ahead goal at 17:05 of the second period and Tage Thompson scored a pair of third-period goals to help Luukkonen’s cause. Luukkonen made 28 saves in his third start in the last five games, ushered into the starter’s spot after Alex Lyon returned to Buffalo for further medical evaluation of a lower-body injury.
v
Buffalo Sabres left wing Beck Malenstyn, right celebrates the win with Buffalo Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (1)
after an NHL hockey game against the Dallas Stars, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, Dallas. (AP Photo/Jessica Tobias)
The Sabres held the Stars to eight shots on goal in the second and seven in the third, which also helped Luukkonen.
“We’re really playing heavy in front of the net, and taking away second chances,” Luukkonen said. “As a goalie, when the game is predictable, you feel comfortable and confident playing, so I think I feel that way right now, but most of it is because the team is playing really well in front of me.”
Now, the Sabres go for a franchise record 11 straight wins when they face the Columbus Blue Jackets at 3 p.m. Saturday at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Their current 10-game winning streak matches the franchise-best, which has been reached three previous times in Sabres history: Jan 4-23, 1984; Oct. 4-26, 2006, and Nov. 8-27, 2018.
“Obviously, we’re riding a little high right now but at the same time, I think we’ve done a pretty good job after winning, coming back down to earth and making sure we’re ready for the next game,” Thompson said. “That’s kind of how we got on this roll, making sure we’re doing the right things, every game, and when you’re winning games in a row, it’s pretty easy to expect to win.”
The win against the Stars moved the Sabres (21-14-4) into a tie with the Colorado Avalanche for the longest winning streak of 2025-26.
But, Thompson said, the Sabres aren’t looking too far ahead of themselves, even as the wins continue to stack.
“We’re looking one day at a time, one game at a time,” Thompson said. “It’s exciting to win 10 in a row now, but we’ve got to get ready for Columbus.”
The Sabres have seen different players step into the spotlight in each of the last 10 games, whether it was Lyon stepping in for Colten Ellis in a 4-3 overtime win Dec. 9 at Edmonton, Zach Benson scoring the go-ahead goal Dec. 12 in a 4-3 win at Vancouver, or Bowen Byram’s overtime goal that lifted the Sabres to a 3-2 win Dec. 23 at Ottawa.
Luukkonen took on that role Wednesday against the Stars.
“Rock-solid,” Thompson said of Luukkonen. “Made some huge saves at some key times in the game, to keep momentum in our favor. It just gives energy and life to the bench and helps us continue to roll forward.”
Thompson on a tear
Thompson has scored at least a point in nine of the Sabres’ last 11 games, and has 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) in that span, including two goals and an assist Wednesday at Dallas.Thompson’s two-goal third period, though, began auspiciously when he was penalized for hooking at 3:59. The Sabres killed off the power play and didn’t allow the Stars a shot on goal on that man-advantage, and then Thompson made it 3-1 at 9:21.
A little more than two minutes later, Thompson took a pass from Noah Ostlund and beat Stars goalie Casey DeSmith on a rocket from the slot to open Buffalo’s lead to 4-1. Thompson’s seven shots on goal matched Dallas’ Jason Robertson for a game high.
“Hunger to win,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “He saw an opportunity, great battle around the net-front, I thought that line did a good job down low, around their goaltender. Then, the next one, he just fired a rocket. You give him that much time from there, and he hit his mark. We’ve seen it before, where he scores a lot of goals from there.”
Byram’s recent run
Byram scored the go-ahead goal with less than three minutes left in the second period, less than 10 minutes after Josh Doan tied the game at 1-1. Byram has also been on a recent tear, scoring his third goal in four games, and he now has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his last five games, including a two-point night against Dallas.Byram assisted on Thompson’s first goal, which gave him his third multi-point game this season. Byram also led the Sabres with 24 minutes, 36 seconds of ice time, just 15 more seconds than Rasmus Dahlin.
“This was, I don’t know what you want to call it, another step in the right direction for our team,” Byram said of the win. “There’s been instances where stuff like that (goal by Dallas’ Mavrik Bourque) happens in a game early, and we fall behind and we can never claw our way out of it. But we’ve just got a lot of confidence right now, no matter what the score is, and we just try to keep playing the same way.”
