Guentzel has hat trick, Bjorkstrand scores go-ahead goal and Lightning rally past Sabres 6-5

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Jake Guentzel nets hat trick in 2nd period for the Lightning

Jake Guentzel scores three goals in the second period to tally a hat trick for the Lightning.

Mar 6, 2025, 10:32 pm

TAMPA, Fla. -- — Jake Guentzel had a hat trick, Oliver Bjorkstrand scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, and Tampa Bay Lightning rallied for a 6-5 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.

Bjorkstrand scored on a wrist shot with 18:20 remaining, assisted by Nikita Kucherov and Yanni Gourde.

Guentzel scored all three of his goals in the second period and has 32 this season. Nicholas Paul and Darren Raddysh also scored for the Lightning.

Alex Tuch, Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin, Peyton Krebs and John-Jason Peterka scored for the Sabres.

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves for the Lightning. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 20 saves for the Sabres.

Takeaways

Sabres: Buffalo lost its fifth straight.

Lightning: Victor Hedman played only three shifts and less than three minutes before leaving 6:27 into the game with an apparent left leg injury.

Key moment

Guentzel's third goal made it 5-5 late in the second — about a minute after he scored to get Tampa Bay within one. The hat trick was the ninth of his career, including the playoffs. With his second hat trick this season for the Lightning, Guentzel became the second in franchise history to have more than one in his first season with Tampa Bay. Wendel Clark had three in 1998-99.

Key stat

Tampa Bay improved to 9-1-0 over its last 10 games.

Up next

The Sabres continue their swing through Florida, visiting the Panthers on Saturday, while Tampa Bay hosts Boston.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.