Cozens gets 1st NHL hat trick, helps Sabres pull away from Capitals

BUFFALO --Dylan Cozens scored his first NHL hat trick and had an assist for the Buffalo Sabres in a 7-4 win against the Washington Capitals at KeyBank Center on Sunday.

"It felt great," Cozens said. "The guys were setting me up a lot today. I was having lots of chances. I mean, I wouldn't have been able to do it without them."
Tage Thompson scored his 40th goal of the season, Vinnie Hinostroza had a goal and an assist, and Jack Quinn and Casey Mittelstadt each had two assists for the Sabres (31-23-4), who have won five of six. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 26 saves.
Buffalo played without forward Alex Tuch, who is week to week with a lower-body injury, and defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, who is day to day with an undisclosed injury.
"I think everyone stepped up," Thompson said. "We knew that was a big game. Those were important points for us. We have a group that's really hungry in here to succeed and I think everyone in here takes that to heart. I think we are confident with the group that we have, and we knew that we can win this game."

Alex Ovechkin scored his first goal since rejoining the Capitals after the death of his father, Mikhail, and Dylan Strome and T.J. Oshie each had a goal and an assist for Washington (29-27-6), which has lost seven of eight.
Darcy Kuemper allowed five goals on 19 shots before being replaced by Charlie Lindgren in the second period. Lindgren made 16 saves.
"It's just not good enough," Oshie said. "The consistency of attention to detail for us right now has to be at an all-time high. Yesterday (a 6-3 win against the New York Rangers) it was it was there for us. Today it wasn't, so you're not going to last much longer being inconsistent like this."
Cozens gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead at 10:40 of the first after Mittelstadt found him streaking into the slot.
Strome tied it 1-1 from the left hash marks at 14:45.
Thompson put the Sabres back in front 2-1 at 16:35 after intercepting Evgeny Kuznetsov's pass above the circles.
"It's a good feeling," Thompson said of scoring 40 goals. "I think you obviously set goals for yourself at the beginning of the season, and that is something that I wanted to see if I could get this year. It's kind of one of those things now, I guess, where you reach it and now you change your goal, and now it's a little further ahead and try to chase that one now."

Oshie scored 15 seconds later from below the left circle to tie it a 2-2 game at 16:50.
Jeff Skinner responded for the Sabres to make it 3-2 at 5:49 of the second when he poked in a rebound. Zemgus Girgensons then pushed it to 4-2 at 8:36 after he was left alone in front.
Hinostroza, who was recalled from Rochester of the American Hockey League prior to the game, scored from the right circle to extend the lead to 5-2 at 10:07.
"It's tough because it's kind of been the story for the last month or so where after a good stretch of hockey we're playing, we just can't kind of seem to find it," Capitals defenseman Nick Jensen said. "Pucks just keep finding their way into the back of our net, guys are getting discouraged and confidence is starting to shrink more and more as that happens."
Cozens made it 6-2 at 12:49, taking a cross-ice pass from Quinn and shooting blocker side on Lindgren.
"That was an unbelievable pass by [Quinn]," Cozens said. "I called for it when I was in the D-zone just to let him know I was coming up that wing. He just [drew] everyone to him and then kicked it to me, so it was a great play by him."
Ovechkin scored on a rebound in front to cut it to 6-3 at 15:49, and Sonny Milano made it 6-4 with a breakaway on a power play at 18:40.

Cozens completed the hat trick at 11:52 of the third for the 7-4 final.
"It looked like he was in sync and feeling good about his game," Sabres coach Don Granato said. "Obviously, incredible pace. … He definitely had his feet moving today. You could tell he felt good and speed, the impact he had, a lot of it was speed. He could've had one or two more as well."
NOTES:Ovechkin's goal was his 40th goal against the Sabres, the ninth team against which he has reached the mark, passing Marcel Dionne for second-most in NHL history behind Phil Esposito (10). … Cozens' first goal was his 100th NHL point. He's the third player from the 2019 NHL Draft to reach the milestone (Jack Hughes, Trevor Zegras). … Thompson (25 years, 119 days) is the youngest Sabres player to score 40 goals in a season since Thomas Vanek in 2008-09 (25 years, 82 days). … Thompson (five goals, five assists) and Skinner (five goals, four assists) each extended his point streak to six games. ... The Sabres scored seven goals in a game for the fifth time this season.