Kucherov’s Third-Period Hat Trick Powers Lightning Past Sabres

Nikita Kucherov scored a natural hat trick and added an assist in the third period, lifting the Tampa Bay Lightning to an 8-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres in Buffalo on November 11. The victory was Tampa Bay’s fourth in five games and Kucherov’s eighth NHL hat trick.

Buffalo had scored three straight goals to narrow the gap to 4-3 early in the third. Tage Thompson got the Sabres within one 33 seconds into the period, but Kucherov scored twice over a span of 2 minutes and 46 seconds before completing his hat trick.

Brandon Hagel scored twice for Tampa Bay. Carlson contributed a goal plus four assists, while Scott Sabourin and Yanni Gourde found the net as well. Jake Guentzel recorded four assists and Anthony Cirelli had three. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 shots.

Josh Doan, Jason Zucker and Thompson scored for Buffalo, which has lost three of its last four games. Luukkonen stopped nine of the 14 shots he faced before Colten Ellis took over and stopped five of eight.

Tampa Bay visits Columbus on November 12, while Buffalo travels to Chicago that night.