Vladimir Tarasenko achieved his 6th career NHL hat trick and got 2 assists while Robert Thomas added 5 assists as the St. Louis Blues thumped the Buffalo Sabres 6-2 Wednesday night in Buffalo.
Rasmus Asplund opened the scorebook for the Sabres with his 8th goal of the season at 12:20 making it 1-0 Buffalo. The only other goal in the 1st period came from the Blues' David Perron (25) on the power play with 30 seconds remaining to tie things at 1 heading to the 2nd period.
St. Louis had a hot start to the 2nd, needing just 17 seconds and a PPG from Brandon Saad (21) to take a 2-1 lead. At the 4:20 mark, Alex Tuch (11) once again tied things up for the Sabres, but that would be the only other goal by Buffalo for the remainder of the game as Tarasenko scored his first 2 goals on the night at 7:18 and 12:45 for his 29th and 30th tallies of 2021-22 to give St. Louis a 4-2 lead heading to the 3rd period.
At the 6:18 mark of period 3, the Blues made it 5-2, courtesy of Pavel Buchnevich (26). Much later on, at 17:32, Tarasenko got the hat trick for his 31st of the season to make it 6-2 Blues, which would be the final scoreline.
Team Stats:
Shots: STL 28, BUF 37
Hits: STL 7, BUF 4
Faceoff Wins: STL 23, BUF 28
PIM: STL 4, BUF 6
Up Next:
STL: 4/16, vs. MIN, 3 PM
BUF: 4/16, vs. PHI, 7 PM
Comments