At The Final Horn | Luukkonen leaves loss to Lightning early with injury

Buffalo Sabres rookie goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen left Tuesday night's loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning after the first period with a lower-body injury.
He made seven saves on nine shots in Buffalo's 6-1 loss at KeyBank Center.
Malcolm Subban replaced him in goal to start the second period and finished with 22 saves. Vinnie Hinostroza scored a power-play goal for the Sabres' only marker of the night.
Nikita Kucherov recorded a hat trick, and Ondrej Palat, Anthony Cirelli and Steven Stamkos also tallied for the Lightning.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 17 saves on 18 shots.

How it happened

The Lightning scored twice in the first period. Palat opened the scoring 2:16 in on a shot from the slot and then with 9:15 left, Cirelli got open in the slot as well to beat Luukkonen.
Subban stepped in to start the second for Buffalo and Tampa Bay scored on their first shot of the period. Kucherov made it 3-0 with his second goal of the season.
With 9:39 left, Kucherov tallied again and then with 3:39 to go in the second, Stamkos made it 5-0.
Hinostroza got Buffalo on the board with his seventh goal of the season 5:31 into the third while on the power play.
Kucherov completed the hat trick with 6:03 to play.

Roll the highlight film

Here's first power-play goal since March 14, 2019, when he scored a pair with the man advantage:

Worthy of a mention

Jack Quinn, Buffalo's first-round pick in 2020, made his NHL debut. He recorded three shots on goal in 16:30 of action.
The team called up Quinn and Brett Murray from the taxi squad before the game.

The Sabres held Hometown Heroes Night presented by New Wave Energy, which celebrated first responders, frontline workers, and military members in Western New York.
The team honored local fallen soldiers by putting their names on the backs of their custom warmup jerseys.

Read more about each soldier here. The jerseys will be given to the families of each soldier, many of which were in attendance.
And Rick the team dog met Chris Kankiewicz, the veteran he will be a service dog for once his training is complete:

Go behind the scenes of Rick's training here:

Up next

The Sabres hit the road for a two-game trip that will begin Thursday night in Nashville. Faceoff against the Predators is set for 8 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550. Pregame coverage on MSG begins at 7:30.