Nikita Kucherov scored the 4th hat trick of his NHL career as the Tampa Bay Lightning thrashed the Buffalo Sabres 6-1 Tuesday night at the KeyBank Center. Ondrej Palat got things going for Tampa early on, scoring his 15th of the season just 2:16 into the game past Sabres netminder Malcolm Subban, who would allow 4 goals on 27 shots before being replaced by backup Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (yes, that is his real name; he's a rookie from Finland.) Later on, at 10:45 of the first period, Tampa made it 2-0 courtesy of Anthony Cirelli (10). That would be the advantage the Lightning held going into the first intermission.
In the 2nd period, Tampa Bay had a lightning-fast start (no pun intended), as it only took them 27 seconds to make it a 3-0 lead, with Kucherov's 1st of the game and 2nd of the season on the power play being the catalyst. Later, Kucherov would add his 2nd of the game at 10:21 of period 2, his 3rd of 2021-22, to make it a 4-0 Lightning lead. Roughly 4 minutes after that, at 14:04, Steven Stamkos (17) made it 5-0 Tampa heading to the 2nd intermission.
The 3rd period saw Buffalo finally strike, as Vinnie Hinostroza scored on the power play at 5:31 for his 7th of the season to make it a 5-1 Lightning lead. Tampa, though, would ice things at 13:57, with Kucherov completing his hat trick with his 4th of 2021-22 to make it 6-1 Lightning.
Team Stats:
Shots: TB 36, BUF 18
Hits: TB 7, BUF 12
Faceoff Wins: TB 22, BUF 26
Up Next:
TB: 1/13, vs. VAN, 7 PM
BUF: 1/13 @ NSH, 8 PM
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