Ryan McLeod scored his first career hat trick as the Buffalo Sabres beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Wednesday at KeyBank Center.
McLeod began the night centering JJ Peterka and Alex Tuch but later joined Jason Zucker and Tage Thompson on the first line. Scoring before and after that adjustment and adding a late empty netter, McLeod now has four goals in his last three games – and 10 for the season – after going 23 games without one.
Dylan Cozens also scored his 10th goal of the season, while defenseman Connor Clifton recorded a primary assist and tied a team high with four hits.
Sabres goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 34 saves on 36 shots for his 14th win.
After missing two games due to illness, Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson returned to the lineup and had a plus-one rating and an assist in 19:55 of ice time.
Forward Beck Malenstyn, who’d missed three straight games due to illness, skated 15:05, tallied an assist and matched Clifton’s four hits.
Jaccob Slavin and Martin Necas scored Carolina’s goals, while goalie Dustin Tokarski stopped 21 of 24 shots.
Here’s more from the win.