Hurricanes overcome Eichel hat trick, defeat Sabres in OT

BUFFALO -- The Carolina Hurricanes overcame Jack Eichel's first NHL hat trick to end their six-game road trip on a high note.
Defenseman Jaccob Slavin scored at 2:15 of overtime to give the Hurricanes a 5-4 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Friday.

"He keeps doing good things all the time, and we've had him in overtime since he's basically been here," Carolina coach Bill Peters said. "He's a big man, skates real well, defends real good with a good stick, so he's a good guy to play in that 3-on-3 situation and nice to see him get rewarded offensively."
WATCH: [All Hurricanes vs. Sabres highlights]
The Hurricanes (13-11-7) won the last two games of their trip to finish 2-2-2.
"That's part of being on the road," Peters said. "We've got real good leadership, I know that for a fact. It's just the way it is. You've got to play. You've got to play. There's lots of hockey in front of you. We just needed to go out after 40 (minutes) and win a period. And it ended up being a tie after 60, three goals each in the third, and then the overtime was pretty entertaining."

The Sabres (8-18-7) have lost two straight and four out of five (1-2-2).
Eichel completed his hat trick with two goals 10 seconds apart in the third period. After the Hurricanes got out to a 4-2 lead on three straight goals from Jordan Staal (3:00), Derek Ryan (4:03) and Elias Lindholm (6:57) in the third, Eichel scored at 9:24 and 9:34 to tie it 4-4.
"I felt good. I felt like I had jump," Eichel said. "I'm just trying to use my speed, shoot the puck and create for our team."
Eichel scored his second goal to make it 4-3 with a wrist shot from the high slot after receiving a return pass from defenseman Jake McCabe near the blue line. He tied it when he held on to the puck and beat goalie Cam Ward top shelf from below the right face-off circle after Ward went down to block the lower part of the net.

"He was just using his speed, especially through the neutral zone," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "Something must've been triggered, because he started shooting the puck, even coming down off a bad angle."
In overtime, Slavin received a pass from Lindholm and took a wrist shot that beat goalie Chad Johnson.
"Just tried to hit the net," Slavin said. "Great pass from [Lindholm]. Obviously, Eichel's in front of me and just tried to get it around him and hit the net."
"I'm not sure what happened on that last play," Eichel said. "I think I screened [Johnson] trying to block the shot. … It stings, for sure. You get the building into it, the crowd's going, it would've topped off a good night."
Justin Williams (10:16) and Eichel (10:46) scored 30 seconds apart in the second period to make it 1-1.

McCabe gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead at 1:20 of the third when he scored off the rebound of an Eichel shot that was deflected by Evander Kane.
Eichel's was the first hat trick by a Sabres player at home since April 5, 2011, when Thomas Vanek did it in a 4-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
"It's just the kind of player he is," McCabe said. "He wants to win every night and he's the guy who puts a lot of burden on himself to produce. Tonight, he did that for us."
Ward made 37 saves for the Hurricanes. Johnson made 29.

Goal of the game

Slavin's goal at 2:15 of overtime.

Save of the game

Ward stopping Kane on a breakaway at 1:59 of overtime.

Highlight of the game

Eichel's third goal at 9:34 of the third period.

They said it

"It was frustrating for a little while there. I think the group knew we had better and we definitely came together with a good chat and try to get back on track here and just get back to working for one and you can tell the guys last three or four games have really just worked and things start moving in the right direction when you're skating and moving and working and forechecking and doing all those things you've got to do and the key stuff comes later." -- Hurricanes center Jordan Staal on finishing their six-game road trip with two straight wins
"I hand it to our guys to find the energy to come back and tie the game. I thought it was a great effort on their part because it easily could've gone in the other direction. For the most part we played a really, really good game. It's just those little details, and I continue to talk about it, our play without the puck. It's that urgency that something bad could happen, and it did." -- Sabres coach Phil Housley

Need to know

Six Hurricanes (Ryan, Staal, Williams, Lindholm, Slavin, and Sebastian Aho) had two points. … McCabe had an NHL career-high three points (one goal, two assists).

What's next

Hurricanes: Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; FS-CR, FS-O, NHL.TV)
Sabres: Host the Boston Bruins on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVA Sports, NESN, NHL.TV)