Kyle Okposo achieved his first hat trick since an 8-1 Islanders victory on February 7, 2016, while Casey Mittelstadt added 2 goals as the Buffalo Sabres pushed past the Detroit Red Wings 6-3 Thursday night at the KeyBank Center.
Wearing their late 90s uniforms with the black and red buffalo, Mittelstadt (6) opened the scoring for the only goal of the period at 15:32. In the 2nd period, Buffalo made it 5-0 with 4 unanswered goals by Jeff Skinner (17) at just 1:20, Mittelstadt (7) on the power play at 10:28, Okposo's first of the night at 11:21 and then his 2nd at 14:02 for goals 4 and 5 on the season for the St. Paul, Minnesota native.
Detroit did manage 3 unanswered goals in the 3rd period, courtesy of Dominik Kubalik (11), first at 2:35 and then again at 4:23 on the power play to get the Wings on the board. Jordan Oesterle (2) at 7:11 would be the final Detroit goalscorer, as Okposo completed his hat trick at 18:32 for his 6th goal of the season into an empty Red Wings net.
Buffalo edged Detroit on total shots with 35 to the Wings' 31. Detroit, meanwhile, logged 15 total hits to the Sabres' 9. For faceoff wins, Buffalo also held the advantage, with 34 circle duel wins compared to Detroit's 29. Finally, for total team penalty minutes, the Wings logged 10 in the bin while Buffalo racked up 6.
Detroit falls to 15-12-7 on the season, still at 4th in the Atlantic Division, with a 1-loss streak now active after their OT comeback win in Pittsburgh just two days ago. Their next contest is a New Year's eve date with the Ottawa Senators back home at Little Caeser's Arena with puck drop scheduled for 7 pm. Buffalo improves to 17-14-2 with a 5-game win streak and stays just behind the Red Wings in the Atlantic Division standings. Their next game sees them travel to Boston to face the Bruins on New Year's Eve, with puck drop also scheduled for 7 pm.
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