John Carlson posted the best offensive night of his NHL career and Nikita Kucherov scored a third-period natural hat trick to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning in an 8-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.
Tampa Bay improved to 12-4-2 this season with the blowout road victory, pulling away with four straight goals after the Sabres made it a one-goal game early in the third period.
“A highly talented team’s going to play differently down four goals than other teams, just like you’re going to play (differently). I think it’s a double assessment of yourselves of how we play,” Carlson said of holding on for a win.
"Do we play aggressive enough on our toes, or are we just sitting back too much? Certainly against teams like that, we know the kind of skill and talent that they have over there, so those are all parts of the equation that you sort through. You learn from all this stuff.”
Fans had to wait until the final moments of the first period for the offense to rain, and then it never stopped on a night the Lightning kept the scorekeepers busy with multiple career performances.
Scott Sabourin scored his first goal of the season on a rebound with just over a minute left in the opening frame following a Conor Geekie move at the net. Carlson doubled the advantage 49 seconds later, burying his power-play shot near the left post on Jake Guentzel’s cross-ice pass.
Carlson continued his career night with a point shot before the five-minute mark of the second period, earning an assist when the puck hit traffic in front of the net and allowed Brandon Hagel to pot the loose puck for a 3-0 lead.
A pair of Bolts then combined for their first points of the season, with one earning the first of their career.
Playing in his first NHL game, Sam O’Reilly chipped the puck out of the defensive zone to Guentzel at the far blue line. Guentzel then passed to Yanni Gourde at the left post, where Gourde tapped the puck through Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen for the 4-0 goal.
O’Reilly became the 22nd player in franchise history to log a point in their NHL debut, and Gourde’s goal came in his second game back from offseason hip surgery.
“Pretty crazy,” O’Reilly said of his first NHL game. “Just taking it all in today and trying to be where my feet are, and I’m super thankful for all the boys being super welcoming.”
Buffalo attempted a comeback, as a power-play redirection from Josh Doan and a Jason Zucker rush finish at the net made it a two-goal game late in the second period. Tage Thompson’s one-timer 33 seconds into the third period cut the Lightning lead to 4-3, but it was all Tampa Bay from there.
“I liked a lot of what we did until we had an opportunity to kill off a penalty but we don’t,” Cooper said. “That one we gave up late was kind of the kicker. But, hey, we had to do what we did in the third period, and we did it. So, we’ll take the two points and go see what we can do in Columbus.”
Kucherov silenced the push, deking to the backhand and firing the puck through Luukkonen less than a minute after Thompson’s goal to restore the visitors' two-goal lead. His second goal of the frame made it 6-3 when he buried John Carlson’s pass with a one-timer from the right circle.
“That was a huge goal,” Carlson said of the 5-3 score. “It’s nice to score three quick ones like he did, but certainly that first one was a big play at a big time for us. Those are huge for a team, and nothing he does surprises me.”
Carlson finished with a goal and four assists for his first career five-point game. His fifth point of the night marked the 800th of his NHL career, making him just the fifth U.S.-born defenseman to reach the mark.
“You never take anything for granted,” Carlson said. “I think those accolades and all that will be cooler one day in my life, but certainly at the same time it’s a hard league, so you never take that for granted.”
Kucherov finished the natural hat trick on the 7-3 tally with another shot from the right circle on a Lightning power play. He capped a four-point night by setting up Hagel’s 8-3 goal, entering the zone and dropping the puck for Hagel’s shot atop the circles.
"It was tough giving up that late goal in the second, and then they score 30 seconds in(to the third), and now the game is sort of in the balance,” Cooper said. “But Kuch did a Kuch thing and scored right after that to kind of snuff things out, and we took it from there."
Guentzel finished the game with four assists—a new career high. The Lightning also got three helpers from Anthony Cirelli and three points from Brandon Hagel in the team’s highest scoring game of the season, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves in the win.
Tampa Bay will aim to keep the offense flowing on Thursday, when they close their back-to-back with a 7 p.m. visit to face the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Game Notes:
- Wednesday’s game marked O’Reilly’s NHL debut. The 20-year-old center played 12:56 while earning his first career point and playing 2:41 on the power play.
- Cirelli played his 600th NHL game on Wednesday, becoming the 10th player in franchise history to hit 600 games. His three assists marked a season high.
- Defenseman Erik Cernak left the game in the second period and didn’t return. Coach Jon Cooper said he will “probably” miss Thursday’s game.
- Kucherov’s natural hat trick was the third of his career, most in team history. It was his eighth hat trick overall, tying Martin St. Louis for second most in team history.
- Carlson is the fourth defenseman in team history to post a five-point game, joining Darren Raddysh (2024), Pavel Kubina (2000) and Doug Crossman (1992).
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
1. John Carlson, TBL (Goal, 4 assists)
2. Nikita Kucherov, TBL (Hat trick, assist)
3. Jake Guentzel, TBL (4 assists)
