Ryan McLeod scores hat trick as Sabres defeat Hurricanes

Ryan McLeod scored his first-career hat trick and the Buffalo Sabres held on for 4-2 win against the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday.

Dylan Cozens also scored for the Sabres, who have won three of four. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 35 saves.

McLeod completed his hat trick in an unorthodox manner. With Carolina playing 6-on-5, Tage Thompson’s shot at the empty net hit the post. As McLeod raced toward the loose puck, Carolina’s Brett Burns interfered with McLeod, who was awarded the goal despite not getting the shot off.

The Sabres were outshot 8-0 in the third period.

Jaccob Slavin and Martin Necas scored for the Hurricanes, who have lost their last two. Burns had two assists, and Dustin Tokarski made 21 saves.

Carolina was 0-for-3 on the power play; Buffalo was 0-for-1.

McLeod gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead 43 seconds into game when he took a pass from Connor Clifton, crossed the blue line and beat Tokarski with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle.

Shortly after Luukkonen robbed Andrei Svechnikov with a pad save, Cozens made it 2-0 at 8:18 of the second period. After Carolina turned the puck over at their own blue line, the Sabres entered 3-on-2 and Alex Tuch centered to Cozens, who blasted a wrist shot home from the high slot.

It was the third straight game in which the Sabres had gotten out to a 2-0 lead (2-0-1).

McLeod notched his second goal and made it 3-0 with four seconds left in the period when he knocked in a loose puck in front after a faceoff.

The Hurricanes got back in the game at 3:45 of the third period when Slavin lofted a puck on net from along the boards that deflected off Sabres forward Zach Benson’s stick and skittered between Luukkonen’s pads to make it 3-1.

Carolina pulled Tokarski with about 3:30 remaining and it quickly paid off as Necas scored on a one-timer from the left circle off a cross-ice pass from Shayne Gostisbehere.

–Field Level Media