Kucherov Buries Buffalo in One Period, Vegas Wins Its Fourth Straight: Wednesday Night in the NHL

Six games, and Wednesday night kept handing the stage to somebody new. Tampa Bay tried to give a game away and then watched Nikita Kucherov take it back in a single period. Connor McDavid's season-opening point streak reached 20 games in Edmonton. Vegas opened a five-game homestand by beating the team it knocked out of last spring's playoffs. Nashville won its sixth straight on the second night of a back-to-back. And in San Jose, the teenager dragged his team back from 2-0 down in the third period, hit a round number for his career, and still lost in a shootout.

Lightning 8, Sabres 3: Kucherov ends the comeback himself

Tampa Bay built a 4-0 lead in Buffalo on goals from Scott Sabourin and John Carlson late in the first period and Brandon Hagel and Yanni Gourde in the second. Then the Lightning wobbled. Josh Doan and Jason Zucker scored before the second intermission, and Tage Thompson cut it to 4-3 just 33 seconds into the third. KeyBank Center had a game again.

It lasted 52 seconds. Kucherov scored on a breakaway at 1:25 of the third, beating Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and ending the goaltender's night. He one-timed a Carlson pass from the right circle at 4:11. He scored from the same spot on the power play at 14:13, again off a Carlson feed, to complete a natural hat trick — three straight goals, all in one period — and then set up Hagel's second goal of the night at 15:06 for a four-point third period. It was the eighth hat trick of Kucherov's career and his third natural hat trick, the most in Lightning history; the eighth also tied him with Martin St. Louis for second on the franchise's hat trick list. All of it, the Associated Press notes, from a player who requested a trade on Oct. 30.

Carlson quietly had the biggest night of anyone: a goal and four assists for the first five-point game of his career, and his assist on Kucherov's hat trick goal was the 800th point of his career. Jake Guentzel added four assists, Hagel finished with two goals and an assist, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves as Tampa Bay (12-4-2) won for the fourth time in five games, scoring a season-high eight goals on only 22 shots. Buffalo (8-7-3) has lost three of four; Luukkonen allowed five goals on 14 shots and Colten Ellis allowed three on eight in relief. Game Center: Lightning at Sabres

Golden Knights 5, Mammoth 3: Barbashev takes over the second period

Vegas and Utah were tied 1-1 after Jack Eichel's power-play goal at 2:15 of the first — set up by Mitch Marner and Mark Stone, whose assist gave him 416 points as a Golden Knight, one behind Jonathan Marchessault's franchise record — and Lawson Crouse's answer six minutes later. The second period belonged to the home team. Victor Olofsson scored on the power play at 3:07, and Ivan Barbashev followed at 4:51 and again at 8:16, splitting the defense and beating Sebastian Cossa five-hole on the second one while falling down. Three goals in 5:09 turned a tie game into a 4-1 lead.

Utah pushed back — Jack McBain scored late in the second and Dmitri Simashev made it 4-3 at 9:07 of the third — but Brett Howden tipped a William Karlsson shot 72 seconds later to restore the two-goal lead for good. Marner had three assists, Olofsson a goal and two assists, and Carter Hart needed only 14 saves as Vegas outshot Utah 28-17. The Golden Knights (13-5-2) have won four straight and opened their five-game homestand with a five-game point streak (4-0-1) intact. Utah (10-8-1) has lost three in a row to close a six-game, 14-day road trip, and it played without Dylan Guenther, who was placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury before the game. Game Center: Mammoth at Golden Knights

Oilers 3, Flyers 2 (OT): McDavid's streak reaches 20, Bouchard ends it

Zach Hyman scored both Edmonton goals in the second period, and the second one carried the history: Connor McDavid set it up at 14:03, giving him a point in all 20 Oilers games this season. McDavid is the fourth player in NHL history to open a season with a 20-game point streak, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mats Sundin and Dany Heatley, and he leads the league with 49 points (11 goals, 38 assists).

Philadelphia refused to go away. Tyson Foerster scored late in the second and Travis Sanheim tied it 2-2 at 11:42 of the third. Evan Bouchard ended it 47 seconds into overtime off a Leon Draisaitl pass — his 11th goal of the season, the most among NHL defensemen. Tristan Jarry made 30 saves for Edmonton (14-3-3), which won its third straight and matched its second-best start through 20 games in franchise history. The Flyers (5-10-6) earned a point for the third straight game (1-0-2). Game Center: Flyers at Oilers

Predators 4, Ducks 2: Six straight, and the league's hottest team is Nashville

Anaheim struck first through the hottest scorer in the league: Cutter Gauthier wired home his 16th goal of the season at 8:08 of the first, extending his goal streak to seven games. Nashville answered 21 seconds later, Jayden Struble scoring off a feed from Shane Wright — Wright's first point as a Predator after arriving from Seattle in a Nov. 1 trade.

Nils Hoglander put Nashville ahead for good late in the second with a between-the-legs finish from the slot, and Wright scored at 8:05 of the third on a play that gave Roman Josi his 800th career point; Josi added a second assist on Steven Stamkos's insurance goal at 16:04, after Mikael Granlund had cut the lead to 3-2. Justus Annunen made 27 saves to win his fourth straight start. One night after Juuse Saros shut out the Kings in Los Angeles, the Predators (10-4-5) completed the Southern California sweep with their sixth consecutive win — the longest active streak in the NHL and Nashville's longest since March 2024. Anaheim (10-8-1) saw its five-game winning streak end; a Ducks team that had scored at least five goals in eight straight games, something no team had done since the 1988-89 Los Angeles Kings, was held to two. Troy Terry also made his season debut for Anaheim after recovering from June hip surgery. Game Center: Predators at Ducks

Rangers 3, Flames 1: Zibanejad's second period is enough

Mikael Zibanejad scored at 0:59 and again on the power play at 10:52 of the second period, Joonas Korpisalo made 29 saves, and New York (11-8-1) won for the fourth time in five games. Adam Klapka got Calgary (8-10-1) on the board at 7:41 of the third before Tye Kartye's empty-net goal closed it out. Devin Cooley stopped 21 shots for the Flames. Glenn Gawdin made his Rangers debut at fourth-line center — his 14th NHL game and his first since March 6, 2024. Game Center: Rangers at Flames

Penguins 3, Sharks 2 (SO): Celebrini's 200th point, Kindel's night

Pittsburgh led 2-0 on Samuel Girard's first-period goal and Ben Kindel's power-play goal early in the third, and then San Jose's comeback arrived on schedule. Macklin Celebrini scored at 11:32 and set up Mason Marchment's tying goal at 15:49 — two points that brought the 19-year-old to 200 for his career, as the NHL's own highlight notes for the game flagged. The Penguins survived a Kris Letang holding penalty that covered the final 43 seconds of overtime, and Kindel scored the only goal of the shootout, beating Yaroslav Askarov (33 saves) on Pittsburgh's first attempt. Sergei Murashov made 34 saves and stopped Will Smith in the third round to end it. Pittsburgh is 7-10-2; San Jose, which took the point, is 8-11-2. Game Center: Penguins at Sharks

The week rolls on: Tampa Bay finishes its back-to-back in Columbus on Thursday, and Friday's slate includes the Rangers in Vancouver and a Nashville team riding six straight wins walking into T-Mobile Arena to face Vegas.