Kucherov's hat trick, Carlson's five points spark Lightning against Sabres

BUFFALO -- Nikita Kucherov scored a natural hat trick in the third period and had an assist, and John Carlson had a goal and four assists for the Tampa Bay Lightning in an 8-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Wednesday.

Brandon Hagel had two goals and an assist, and Jake Guentzel added four assists for the Lightning (12-4-2), who are 5-1-2 in their past eight games. Anthony Cirelli had three assists, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves.

The Lightning scored the final four goals of the game after the Sabres pulled within one in the opening minute of the third.

“I liked a lot of what we did until we had an opportunity to kill off a penalty, and we don't,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “But that one we gave up late (in the second period), that was that was kind of the kicker. But, hey, we had to do what we had to do in the third period, and we did it. So we'll take the two points and go see what we can do in Columbus (on Thursday).”

Josh Doan, Jason Zucker and Tage Thompson scored for the Sabres (8-7-3), who have lost three of four. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen allowed five goals on 14 shots before he was replaced by Colten Ellis (three goals on eight shots) early in the third.

“We can't give up 2-on-1s, 3-on-1s, 2-on-1s. We're beating ourselves,” Buffalo captain Rasmus Dahlin said.  “We have to look ourselves in the mirror after this one. I know we can play really good hockey. We've proven that, but we have to do it consistently. Today was not good.”

Scott Sabourin gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 18:49 of the first period. After a rebound rolled out to the slot, he quickly snapped it glove side.

Carlson scored on the power play 49 seconds later to make it 2-0 at 19:38. He received a cross-crease pass from Guentzel at the back door, settled it and lifted it into the net.

Hagel pushed the lead to 3-0 from the slot at 4:33 of the second period when he snapped a loose puck past Luukkonen’s glove.

Yanni Gourde took a pass from Guentzel on an odd-man rush and beat Luukkonen stick side to increase it to 4-0 at 13:02.

That prompted Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff to call his timeout.

Doan then cut it to 4-1 on the power play at the edge of the crease, redirecting Ryan McLeod’s pass from the left circle by Vasilevskiy’s left skate at 15:54.

Zucker narrowed it to 4-2 at 19:32, finishing a backhand feed from Noah Ostlund off the rush from the left circle.

Thompson’s one-timer from the top of the right circle went off the far post and in 33 seconds into the third period to pull the Sabres within 4-3.

Kucherov made it 5-3 at 1:25 on a breakaway, beating Luukkonen with a backhand under his left arm and ending the goalie’s night.

“That was a huge goal,” Carlson said. “I mean, obviously it's nice to score three quick ones, too, like he did, but certainly that first one, a big play at a big time for us, and those are those are huge for a team. I mean, nothing he does surprises me now.”

Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said he pulled Luukkonen in an attempt to give his team a spark.

“As a group, we weren’t good enough,” Ruff said. “That’s part to do with him, it has part to do with everybody.”

Kucherov one-timed a pass by Carlson from the right circle to extend the lead to 6-3 at 4:11 and completed the hat trick from the same spot on the power play, off another Carlson feed, to widen the margin to 7-3 at 14:13. 

The latter assist was Carlson’s fifth point, giving him 800 for his NHL career (176 goals, 624 assists).

“Ultimately, we put ourselves in a great position with a 4-0 lead, and then we just lost a little bit of concentration in some of the things we did,” Cooper said. “It was tough giving up that late goal in the second, and then they score (33) seconds in, and now the game is sort of in the balance. 

“But ‘Kuch’ did a Kuch thing and scored right after that kind of to snuff things out, and then we took it from there. But, yeah, we didn't feel like we should have put ourselves in this position we were in to stress. But give Buffalo credit, they came back, but it was good for our guys to not blow it.”

Hagel scored from the slot at 15:06 off a Kucherov drop pass to make it an 8-3 final.

“The defensive structure broke down,” Ruff said. “Sometimes that’s a forward that has to fill and replace, which we got so good at. Sometimes it’s a defenseman. You break down the system, you know which guy broke down. I’m not going to get into the details of who broke down on what play. We weren’t good as a group. I’m moving on, we’re playing (at) Chicago tomorrow.”

NOTES: Kucherov recorded his third career natural hat trick, the most in Lightning history. He also had his eighth career hat trick to tie Martin St. Louis for second-most in the team’s history. Steven Stamkos is first with 13. … Tampa Bay forward Sam O'Reilly, making his NHL debut, earned the secondary assist on Gourde’s goal for his first point. … Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak left the game at 14:06 of the second period after colliding with the curved glass following a hit from Sabres forward Beck Malenstyn by the Tampa Bay bench. Cooper said Cernak is “probably out tomorrow.” … Cirelli played his 600th NHL game. … Thompson’s goal was his 224th with Buffalo, tying him with Miroslav Satan for eighth in Sabres history.