Tage Thompson and JJ Peterka each recorded a hat trick and an assist to lead the Buffalo Sabres to a 7-2 win over the visiting Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.
Thompson scored in each period en route to his seventh career hat trick and first of the season, while Peterka capped the first of his career with back-to-back goals in the third.
The Sabres had not had multiple players record hat tricks in the same game since 2008.
Zach Benson added a last-minute goal, Dylan Cozens had two assists, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s 25 saves helped Buffalo snap a two-game skid and win for only the second time in six games.
Mason Lohrei and Brad Marchand each scored a goal and Jeremy Swayman made 26 saves for Boston, which was 5-1-1 in its previous seven games.
Thompson scored Buffalo’s first of two goals in a 1:49 second-period span to break a 1-1 tie, and the Sabres led the rest of the way. At 4:43, he finished off a perfect passing sequence that started between Ryan McLeod and Mattias Samuelsson.
The Sabres added insurance at 6:32, as Owen Power saucered the puck into the zone to Peterka, who ripped a wrist shot high on Swayman’s glove side from the left circle.
Thompson made it a hat trick 3:13 into the third, taking a feed from Rasmus Dahlin through the middle and into the right circle to wrist his team-leading 25th goal of the season.
After Swayman denied Alex Tuch’s short-handed net drive, Marchand brought Boston back within 4-2 at 10:13 on the power play. The Bruins’ captain scored after Elias Lindholm’s wraparound pass.
The hosts regained a three-goal lead only 30 seconds later. A turnover at Boston’s offensive blue line led Peterka down the middle of the ice, and he split two defenders before slotting a wrist shot past Swayman.
Peterka clinched his trick on an empty-net goal at 14:26.
Benson tipped home a Jack Quinn shot at the net front on the power play with 13 seconds remaining.
Lohrei broke a streak of six straight Bruins goals scored by David Pastrnak or Morgan Geekie 12:44 into the first, making a move on his defender to drive down the left side and fire off a slap shot across the grain and past Luukkonen’s glove side.
The Boston lead was short-lived, however, as Thompson responded by burying a pass from Cozens after skating down the slot only 55 seconds later.
–Field Level Media
