Marchenko has natural hat trick, Blue Jackets score 9 in win against Sabres

BUFFALO -- Kirill Marchenko scored a natural hat trick for the Columbus Blue Jackets in a 9-4 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.

“How about that second one on the power play?” Columbus coach Pascal Vincent said. “He’s got skills, he’s got size, and he’s got a great personality. He’s loved in the dressing room, he’s starting to talk more. … He brings people together. That’s what he does best. And he’s a good hockey player, obviously. He’s got good skills, but he was committed to the right things. … I thought he was solid tonight.”

Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and two assists, and Daniil Tarasov made 25 saves for the Blue Jackets (11-17-5).

“It’s an exciting win for us,” Gaudreau said. “Come out hard in the first, take the lead, play well in the second, and then obviously they got a little momentum off the power play, but we fought back and found a way to score a couple more in the third. Everyone contributed offensively, ‘Tarry’ played great.”

Rasmus Dahlin and Dylan Cozens each had a goal and an assist for the Sabres (13-17-3), who are 3-7-1 in their past 11 games. Devon Levi allowed four goals on 18 shots before being replaced by Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (11 saves) in the second period.

“It just has to be an everyday thing,” Buffalo captain Kyle Okposo said. “It’s not like you can flip a light switch and then, all of a sudden, we’re right back to where we were last year, or we are back to how we can play. We know we can play. We’ve had had games this year where we’ve outplayed some of the best teams in the League, but we’re not doing it on a consistent enough basis.

“That’s the NHL. It’s 82 games, it’s not 40, it’s not 35, it’s 82. It’s going to punish you if you are off and that’s what’s happening to us too many nights. It’s going to be on all of us to find solutions and we’re not going to stop trying to find those. We’re going to look at the tape, we’re going to speak. We have done a lot of talking and now it’s time to go out and play.”

Marchenko backhanded the puck between his legs before switching to his forehand and lifting it into the far top corner on the power play to push the Blue Jackets’ lead to 3-1 at 19:48 of the first period.

He extended it to 4-1 at 7:37 of the second period from the top of the left circle, chasing Levi from the net, and completed the hat trick 18 seconds later at 7:55 when he scored from the left face-off dot on a 2-on-1 to make it 5-1 on the first shot Luukkonen faced. Both came off passes from linemate Yegor Chinakhov.

The goals were the fastest two scored by one player in Blue Jackets history, surpassing Cam Atkinson (31 seconds, Oct. 27, 2018). The three goals in 8:07 were the second-fastest hat trick in Blue Jackets history (Jeff Carter, 3:18, Dec. 22, 2011).

“When we play all together, it’s easy,” Marchenko said of his all-Russian line with Chinakhov and Dmitri Voronkov. “I know if I make a mistake ‘Vorny’ can help, ‘Chinny’ helped me. … We have more confidence, we want to score more goals and just do next step, think about next step.”

Dahlin gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead 30 seconds into the first period, taking a pass from Cozens into the inner edge of the right circle and scoring stick side.

Gaudreau tucked the puck in at the left post from behind the net at 10:35 to tie it 1-1.

Adam Fantilli made it 2-1 at 14:40 when Gaudreau banked a pass off the end boards to him, and Fantilli then banked it off Levi short side from a sharp angle.

After Marchenko’s hat trick, Erik Gudbranson’s shot from above the right circle made it 6-1 at 8:52 of the second period and Sean Kuraly slipped the puck five-hole on a 2-on-1 at 12:27 for a 7-1 lead.

“I think there are times where we play as a young group and it’s not always easy,” Okposo said. “This is not an easy league. It’s an [unforgiving] league. If you are off at all, it is gonna get shoved down your throat really hard and that’s exactly what happened tonight. And when you don’t have a game that you feel 100 percent comfortable that you can fall back on and play to an identity, that’s what happens.

“That’s what happened to us and that’s on us. That’s on everybody in this room. Everybody. Probably myself more and I’ll take the blame for not having the group ready. Put it all on me. That’s fine. I’ll take that.”

Okposo scored from the right circle at 18:54 to cut it to 7-2.

Tage Thompson made it 7-3 on a one-timer from the left circle on the power play at 2:57 of the third period, and Cozens pulled Buffalo to within 7-4 from the top of the right circle at 7:51.

Cole Sillinger redirected a pass from Zach Werenski on the doorstep to make it 8-4 at 8:30 and Kent Johnson scored from the slot at 10:59 for the 9-4 final.

“It’s actions,” Thompson said. “We can say all the things we want to say in the locker room, we’ve got to go out and do it. It’s as simple as that.”

NOTES: Marchenko is the second Columbus player with a natural hat trick this season after captain Boone Jenner on Oct. 14. … Gaudreau had his 57th three-point game, passing Blake Wheeler and Doug Weight for 15th in NHL history among U.S.-born players. … Dahlin scored the fourth-fastest goal from the start of a game by a defenseman in Sabres history behind Grant Ledyard (0:08; Dec. 4, 1991), Tyler Myers (0:23; Jan. 6, 2010) and Jacob Bryson (0:28; Nov. 4, 2022). . … Dahlin had his 57th multipoint game, tying Doug Bodger for second among defensemen in Buffalo history.