Game

Golden Knights at Sabres

Sabres 3, Golden Knights 2 · first star Tage Thompson (1 G, 0 A).

2025-26 regular season · Preseason. The 2026-27 regular season starts Sep 29. Data as of September 28, 2026, source NHL.

Vegas Golden Knights 2 at Buffalo Sabres 3

Golden Knights VGK

2 FINAL 3

Sabres BUF

Tuesday, March 3, 2026 · 7:00 PM ET · KeyBank Center, Buffalo

Line score by period
Team	1	2	3	T	SOG
Golden Knights	0	2	0	2	29
Sabres	1	2	0	3	28

Shot chart

Every shot attempt, computed from the league's play-by-play coordinates. Golden Knights attack left, Sabres attack right, all periods folded onto one rink. Attempts are plotted where the league recorded them, so the 3 marks in a team's own end are attempts logged from there: empty-net shots, long dumps on the net. Boxscore shots on goal: VGK 29, BUF 28.

VGK in red BUF in blue goal shot on goal missed blocked Golden Knights 29 shots on goal (2 goals, 19 missed, 11 blocked) attacking left; Sabres 28 shots on goal (3 goals, 18 missed, 12 blocked) attacking right.

Shots by period

Shots on goal, goals and attempts by period
Period	VGK SOG	VGK G	VGK ATT	BUF SOG	BUF G	BUF ATT
1st	7	0	15	11	1	24
2nd	16	2	26	12	2	20
3rd	6	0	18	5	0	14
Total	29	2	59	28	3	58

Shots by situation

Shots on goal and goals by strength of the shooting team
Situation	VGK SOG	VGK G	BUF SOG	BUF G
Even strength	28	2	26	3
Power play	1	0	1	0
Short-handed	0	0	1	0

Attempt share by period

Golden Knights took 50.4% of the shot attempts, and 49.5% of the 107 attempts taken at 5-on-5. An attempt is a goal, a shot on goal, a miss or a blocked shot; CF% is the share of them belonging to the Sabres and FF% their share of the ones that were not blocked, so the Golden Knights hold the remainder. All situations unless the 5-on-5 figure is named. All 32 teams

Attempt share by period, all situations, Golden Knights at Sabres
Period	BUF CF%	BUF FF%
1st	61.5	54.8
2nd	43.5	45.0
3rd	43.8	47.8
Game	49.6	48.9

Team totals only: per-player on-ice numbers need shift data, which this source does not publish.

Scoring summary

1st period

04:02 Jason Zucker (16) Ryan McLeod (32), Rasmus Dahlin (40) · snap 0–1

2nd period

00:46 Owen Power (5) Noah Ostlund (11) · wrist 0–2
05:44 Tage Thompson (33) Alex Tuch (28), Rasmus Dahlin (41) · wrist 0–3
06:50 Ivan Barbashev (18) Shea Theodore (21), Jack Eichel (48) · wrap-around 1–3
08:27 Pavel Dorofeyev (29) Reilly Smith (9) · wrist 2–3

Three stars

Tage Thompson BUF · C #72 · 1 G, 0 A
Alex Lyon BUF · G #34 · 0 GA, .931 SV%
Rasmus Dahlin BUF · D #26 · 0 G, 2 A

Penalties

Penalties
Period	Time	Team	Player	Infraction	Min	Drawn by
1st	07:39	BUF	Alex Tuch	tripping	2	Jeremy Lauzon
3rd	12:50	VGK	Rasmus Andersson	delaying game puck over glass	2	—

Boxscore

Vegas Golden Knights

Golden Knights skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Ivan Barbashev #49	L	1	0	1	0	3	0	0	0	33.3	17:41
Pavel Dorofeyev #16	R	1	0	1	+1	4	0	0	0	0.0	20:48
Jack Eichel #9	C	0	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	42.1	21:19
Reilly Smith #19	R	0	1	1	+1	2	2	0	0	0.0	19:04
Shea Theodore #27	D	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	0	0.0	24:29
Colton Sissons #10	C	0	0	0	0	2	3	1	0	75.0	13:01
Raphael Lavoie #36	C	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0.0	08:34
Tomas Hertl #48	C	0	0	0	-2	2	2	0	0	27.3	11:47
Brandon Saad #20	L	0	0	0	-2	1	0	0	0	0.0	08:14
Cole Reinhardt #23	L	0	0	0	0	1	4	0	0	0.0	11:01
Braeden Bowman #42	R	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0.0	18:15
Keegan Kolesar #55	R	0	0	0	-2	1	7	1	0	0.0	11:40
Mitch Marner #93	R	0	0	0	+1	0	0	1	0	40.0	22:11
Brayden McNabb #3	D	0	0	0	+1	2	3	1	0	0.0	20:36
Jeremy Lauzon #5	D	0	0	0	-1	2	4	1	0	0.0	15:59
Kaedan Korczak #6	D	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0.0	17:26
Noah Hanifin #15	D	0	0	0	-1	3	0	3	0	0.0	19:10
Rasmus Andersson #4	D	0	0	0	-1	1	0	1	2	0.0	18:16

Golden Knights goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Akira Schmid #40	L	28	25	3	.893	23/26	1/1	58:29

Buffalo Sabres

Sabres skaters · by points
Player	Pos	G	A	PTS	+/-	SOG	HITS	BLK	PIM	FO%	TOI
Rasmus Dahlin #26	D	0	2	2	+2	1	3	1	0	0.0	25:50
Tage Thompson #72	C	1	0	1	+1	2	0	0	0	46.7	21:07
Jason Zucker #17	L	1	0	1	+1	2	0	0	0	50.0	13:36
Owen Power #25	D	1	0	1	-1	2	0	2	0	0.0	22:54
Noah Ostlund #86	C	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	100.0	14:19
Ryan McLeod #71	C	0	1	1	+1	2	0	1	0	47.4	15:51
Alex Tuch #89	R	0	1	1	+1	1	1	1	2	0.0	19:36
Josh Norris #9	C	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	58.3	15:35
Peyton Krebs #19	C	0	0	0	+1	0	4	0	0	83.3	20:04
Tyson Kozak #48	C	0	0	0	-1	0	1	1	0	60.0	08:34
Beck Malenstyn #29	L	0	0	0	0	1	2	1	0	0.0	08:57
Zach Benson #6	L	0	0	0	-1	0	1	0	0	0.0	09:46
Jack Quinn #22	R	0	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	0.0	15:05
Josh Doan #91	R	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0.0	16:32
Bowen Byram #4	D	0	0	0	-1	0	1	0	0	0.0	22:42
Mattias Samuelsson #23	D	0	0	0	+1	4	1	1	0	0.0	25:15
Michael Kesselring #8	D	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0.0	11:19
Zach Metsa #73	D	0	0	0	+1	1	0	1	0	0.0	10:58

Sabres goalies
Goalie	DEC	SA	SV	GA	SV%	EV	PP	TOI
Alex Lyon #34	W	29	27	2	.931	26/28	1/1	60:00

SOG shots on goal · BLK blocked shots · FO% faceoff win percentage · EV / PP saves over shots by strength. Skaters sorted by points, then goals.

Source NHL (boxscore, play-by-play, game summary). Shot locations are the league's tracked coordinates; the chart and the situation tables are computed by Play-Pause Hockey. Data as of 2026-09-28.