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Lightning Beat Sabres 8-3 as Kucherov Nets Hat Trick

Nikita Kucherov scored three third-period goals and John Carlson had five points as Tampa Bay scored four times in the final period to win 8-3 in Buffalo.

By Orbit Post2 min read
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Lightning Beat Sabres 8-3 as Kucherov Nets Hat Trick

Key points

  • The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Buffalo Sabres 8-3 on Wednesday night at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, scoring four goals in the third period to turn a close game into a rout.
  • Tampa Bay led 2-0 after the first period and 4-2 after the second.
  • The third period belonged to Kucherov and Carlson.

The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Buffalo Sabres 8-3 on Wednesday night at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, scoring four goals in the third period to turn a close game into a rout. Nikita Kucherov scored all three of his goals in that third period for a hat trick, and John Carlson finished with five points.

A close game for two periods

Tampa Bay led 2-0 after the first period and 4-2 after the second. Buffalo stayed within reach through 40 minutes, scoring twice in the second period, and the game went to the third at 4-2 with the home crowd still in it.

Kucherov takes the third period

The third period belonged to Kucherov and Carlson. Kucherov opened the period scoring at 1:25 from Brandon Hagel and Carlson. He scored again at 4:11, set up by Carlson and Anthony Cirelli. Buffalo cut the margin to 6-3, and Kucherov completed the hat trick at 14:13 from Carlson and Jake Guentzel to make it 7-3. Hagel capped the night at 15:06 with his second goal of the game, assisted by Kucherov and Cirelli, for the 8-3 final.

Carlson had a hand in goal after goal, finishing with five points. Kucherov added an assist on the last goal to go with his three goals.

Why it matters

Tampa Bay improved to 11-4-2 with the win, one of the strongest records in the league in the season's first month. Buffalo fell to 8-6-3. The pattern mattered as much as the score: the Lightning held a two-goal lead on the road for two periods, then scored four times in twenty minutes when the game opened up. Teams that can do both, sit on a lead and then sprint away from it, are hard to play in November and harder in the spring.

For Buffalo, the second period offered a way back into the game and the third period took it away. Giving up four goals in a period at home, three of them to the same player, is the kind of night a team reviews on video the next morning.

Key numbers

Final score: Lightning 8, Sabres 3. Period scores: Tampa Bay 2-2-4, Buffalo 0-2-1. Kucherov: three goals, all in the third period, at 1:25, 4:11 and 14:13, plus one assist. Carlson: five points. Records after the game: Tampa Bay 11-4-2, Buffalo 8-6-3.

Timeline

  1. Nov 11, 2026Tampa Bay leads 4-2 after two periods in Buffalo, then scores four third-period goals, three from Nikita Kucherov, to win 8-3.

Sources