Sept. 21: NHL Preseason Roundup

JJ Peterka scored a hat trick, and the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 7-3 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo on Saturday in Lindy Ruff’s return as coach.

Ruff was hired for his second tenure to replace Don Granato on April 22. He's the winningest coach in Sabres history (571-432-84 with 78 ties in 1,165 regular-season games).

Henri Jokiharju had a goal and two assists for the Sabres. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 15 saves.

Jesse Puljujarvi had a hat trick for the Penguins. Joel Blomqvist allowed six goals on 24 shots; Filip Larsson made 18 saves in relief.

Each team was playing its first game of the preseason.

Puljujarvi gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead on the power play 1:08 into the first period.

Peterka tied it 1-1 for the Sabres at 3:25 on the power play.

Peterka scored again 46 seconds into the second period to make it 2-1 Sabres.

Owen Power gave the Sabres a 3-1 lead at 2:29. Jokiharju made it 4-1 Sabres at 3:29. Sam Lafferty made it 5-1 Sabres at 4:20.

Peterka completed his hat trick at 5:26 to make it 6-1.

Dylan Cozens made it 7-1 Sabres at 3:42 of the third period.

Puljujavri scored at at 8:33 and 8:52 to finish his hat trick for the 7-3 final.

Stars 2, Blues 1: Kyle Capobianco and Colin Blackwell scored for the Dallas Stars in their win against the St. Louis Blues at American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Casey DeSmith stopped all 14 shots he faced through the first two periods for the Stars before he was replaced by Magnus Hellberg, who made seven saves in the third.

Kasperi Kapanen scored for the Blues. Jordan Binnington saved all 10 shots he faced in the first period for the Blues before giving way to Colten Ellis, who made 14 saves.

Each team was playing its first game of the preseason.

Capobianco gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 17:25 of the second period when his wrist shot from the right point deflected in off Blues forward Alexey Toropchenko’s stick.

Blackwell made it 2-0 at 10:46 of the third with a snap shot from the top of the left face-off circle.

Kapanen cut it to 2-1 at 14:44, taking a pass from Zach Dean in front and lifting a shot over Hellberg’s glove.

Dallas forward Mason Marchment did not return to the game after blocking a shot in the third period, but Stars coach Pete DeBoer said after the game that x-rays were negative.

NHL.com independent correspondent Taylor Baird contributed to this report

Wild 5, Jets 2: Jesper Wallstedt made 35 saves for the Minnesota Wild in their win against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.

Each team was playing its first game of the preseason.

Five players scored for the Wild, who took a 2-0 first-period lead on two power-play goals.

Caedan Bankier gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 7:11 of the first period, corralling a loose puck outside the crease, and Daemon Hunt made it 2-0 at 16:40 on a slap shot from the point.

Colin Miller's slap shot for Winnipeg cut it to 2-1 at 18:57.

Graeme Clarke put Minnesota up 3-1 at 8:24 of the second period with a wrist shot, and Jakub Lauko scored on a breakaway after blocking a shot in his own end to make it 4-1 at 11:40.

Ben Jones made it 5-1 for Minnesota at 5:11 of the third period.

Colby Barlow finished the scoring at 19:14.

Kaapo Kahkonen made 23 saves for Winnipeg.