At The Final Horn | Sabers succumb to Carolina rally on the road

The Buffalo Sabers got off to a good start, but the Carolina Hurricanes rallied back Thursday night to hand the Sabers a 5-3 loss at PNC Arena.

Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch and Victor Olofsson helped Buffalo to a 3-1 lead before Carolina scored one late in the second period and then three more in the third. Craig Anderson stopped 27 shots.

Sebastian Aho and Jordan Staal both scored twice for Carolina. Teuvo Teravainen added another. Antti Raanta made 18 saves.

With the win, Carolina clinched a playoff berth.

Buffalo was 0-for-3 on the power play with just three shots on goal while on the man advantage. The club finished 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

How it happened

Buffalo’s top line helped the team to an early lead.

Video: BUF @ CAR: Thompson buries Skinner’s nifty feed

Thompson wrist shot through a Tuch screen 3:49 into the game to bury his 32nd goal of the season and open the scoring.

Just 2:36 later, Tuch finished a play in front as Skinner found him in front to make it 2-0. The play capped off a strong shift by the line in the offensive zone.

After killing off a pair of penalties, Buffalo was unable to register his third shot on goal until there was 6:19 remaining in the period.

Video: BUF @ CAR: Olofsson strikes back: 30 after Aho’s goal

Carolina got on the board 4:59 into the second period when Aho scored on the rush. Buffalo responded on the next shift when Olofsson tallied after he got loose in front.

The Hurricanes got back within one when Teravainen picked off a clearing attempt and beat Anderson with 3:28 left in the second.

Staal tied things up when he came down the slot and scored high glove 5:12 into the third period. They took their first lead of the game with 8:21 remaining when Aho scored again.

Staal added an empty netter with 54.3 seconds left to make it a 5-3 game.

Roll the highlight film

Here’s Tuch’s goal:

Video: BUF @ CAR: Tuch doubles lead in front, by crease

Worthy of a mention

Thompson has 15 points (9 + 6) in his last 13 contests while Tuch has seven points (2 + 5) in his last six games.

Skinner, meanwhile, has 12 points (7 + 5) in his last 10 games and has tallied at least one point in nine of those 10 contests.

Olofsson (6 + 4) and Casey Mittelstadt (2 + 8) and both have 10 points (2 + 8) in their last 10 games.

Coming up

The Sabers are right back at it with a game Friday night in Florida. They’ll take on the Panthers to continue their four-game road trip at 7 pm on MSG and WGR 550.