BUFFALO, N.Y. - The Lightning had control, lost it, and then Nikita Kucherov slammed the door.
Tampa Bay built a four-goal cushion in Buffalo on Wednesday night, only to watch the Sabres rip it back to 4-3 and turn KeyBank Center into a pressure cooker. That’s when Kucherov took over. He ripped off three straight goals for a natural hat trick, the eighth hat trick of his career and his third natural one, and the Lightning rolled to an 8-3 win.
It was a far cry from the teams’ last meeting, a wild 15-goal, five-fight game in which Tampa Bay erased two three-goal deficits before giving away a two-goal lead in the third period of an 8-7 loss. This one didn’t reach that level of chaos, but it still demanded some grit from the Lightning.
The game started tilting Tampa Bay’s way early, and the boos were already rolling in from the crowd. The Lightning were up 4-0 with 6:58 left in the second period after Sam O’Reilly, making his NHL debut, picked up his first point. His outlet pass to Jake Guentzel helped set up Yanni Gourde’s first goal of the season.
Then the night changed when defenseman Erik Cernak was knocked out of the game with 5:54 left in the second period. His head hit the corner glass at the end of the Tampa Bay bench after he was run into the boards by Sabres forward Beck Malenstyn. Buffalo cashed in on the power play that followed, and the Sabres scored three times in a 4:39 span to make it a one-goal game.
Tage Thompson made it 4-3 just 33 seconds into the third period, but Tampa Bay answered immediately. Kucherov scored his sixth goal of the season by taking an outlet pass from Brandon Hagel, spinning into the offensive zone and finishing with a backhander while battling Olen Zellweger, who was hooking him from behind. That goal sent Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen to the bench after he allowed five goals on 14 shots.
From there, the Lightning kept pouring it on. John Carlson finished with his first career five-point night, posting one goal and four assists. Guentzel added four assists as well for Tampa Bay, which improved to 12-4-2.
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