10-30-2018, 08:35 AM
NASHVILLE Womens Jaroslav Halak Jersey , Tenn. (AP) The Buffalo Sabres saw defenseman Victor Antipin taken off the ice on a stretcher after being boarded. Then, they took it out on the Nashville Predators by scoring three goals on the ensuing 5-minute major.”We were able to make them pay a little bit,” Buffalo center Sam Reinhart said.Reinhart had a hat trick with Jack Eichel adding a career-high five assists as the Sabres stunned the NHL-leading Predators 7-4 Saturday night.”It’s never easy to see a teammate get injured,” Eichel said. ”It was a good job by our team responding and putting it on the scoreboard where it counts.”The Predators needed a win and a regulation loss by Winnipeg to clinch their first Central Division title, and a loss by Vegas in any fashion for the defending Western Conference champs for their first conference banner in the regular season. But Winnipeg beat Toronto 3-1, and the Predators played a sloppy game giving up a season-high in goals to the NHL’s last-place team.Despite a league-worst 60 points, the Sabres outshot Nashville from the start and chased goalie Pekka Rinne after he gave up six goals on 29 shots through two periods.Jason Pominville and Ryan O’Reilly also scored for Buffalo, and Eichel tied a franchise single-game record with his assists.P.K. Subban, Austin Watson, Kyle Turris and Nick Bonino scored for Nashville.The Sabres took control with the three goals – two by Reinhart – during those 5 minutes after Antipin was boarded by Nashville forward Scott Hartnell behind the Buffalo net at 14:09 of the second. Antipin was strapped to a backboard and taken off the ice on a stretcher.”The guys rallied around Victor and made a point to come out, and that was the difference in the game,” Buffalo coach Phil Housley said.Reinhart tied it up at 4 just 55 seconds into the power play, and he put Buffalo ahead at 17:18 with his second goal. Kyle Okposo scored his second of the night at 19:00 for the big lead.”You’re taught as a young kid obviously to finish your checks,” Hartnell said of his hit on Antipin. ”I wasn’t head-hunting. We were leading the game at that time. A 5-minute penalty, and they scored three quick ones and it’s a totally different ballgame. It’s just unfortunate. I feel really bad about it.”This game also marked the NHL debut of Nashville rookie Eeli Tolvanen , and coach Peter Laviolette gave Filip Forsberg the night off and replaced him with the Finn who set the KHL scoring record for an 18-year-old with Jokerit before being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.Pominville started the scoring 43 seconds in. Nashville led 2-1 at the end of the first with Subban scoring on a slap shot that deflected off Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen at 2:59 for a rare Nashville power-play goal. The Predators came into the game 3 of 49 on the man advantage since March 1.Nashville led 2-1 at 17:00 of the first on Watson’s goal, and Turris made it 3-1 a couple minutes into the second.O’Reilly scored at 5:45 of the second on the power play, and Okposo tied it up at 3 with a wrister from the slot off a rebound at 7:20. The Predators took a 4-3 lead at 12:50 when Bonino hopped over Johnson’s left leg and backhanded the puck into the net. Buffalo lots its challenge for goaltender interference with Johnson on his belly in the crease.Reinhart got his hat trick at 11:43 of the third. Buffalo finished 4 of 9 on the power play.”We came out flat the whole 60 minutes,” Nashville captain Roman Josi said. ”We never played up to our potential, and it just wasn’t good enough.”NOTES: Predators forward Viktor Arvidsson, Nashville’s leading goal scorer, played only 43 seconds of the second before going to the locker room to stay. The Predators had no update on his status after the game. … Eichel had Buffalo’s first five-point game since Thomas Vanek on Jan. 31, 2013 John Tavares Jersey , at Boston. Eichel now has 102 career assists. … Fisher played in his 1,100th career NHL game.UP NEXTSabres: Visit Toronto on Monday night.Predators: Visit Tampa Bay on Sunday.— SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) Calling it ”a lucky play,” Jamie Benn stole the puck from Tomas Hertl and scored the go-ahead goal with 3:06 left before tacking on an empty-netter for the hat trick in the Dallas Stars‘ 4-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night.”It was just a read,” Benn said. ”I’ll take it.”So will the Stars, who ended a seven-game road losing streak.”We played our best third period in a long time,” coach Ken Hitchcock said.Mike McKenna, who replaced an injured Kari Lehtonen, got the victory after stopping all 17 shots he faced. McKenna last played in the NHL for the Arizona Coyotes on Feb. 16, 2015.”It’s fulfilling getting a win,” McKenna said. ”It was fun to be part of this win. It’s not anything I haven’t seen before. Sometimes you lean on your experience.”Dallas’ Gemel Smith tied it at 2 with 5:17 left. Devon Shore won a battle along the boards and rushed the net, tapping it to Smith at the last second.Logan Couture set a career high with his 33rd goal and Timo Meier scored No. 20 for the Sharks, who lost their fourth straight.”You’re concerned any time you lose a lead,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. ”Again, we played good enough tonight to score four goals and we should have won. We didn’t, and we didn’t handle that as well as we could have in the third. For me, the big mistake was not putting them away when we had the chance, not the third period.”Lehtonen left with an upper-body injury with 4:06 remaining in the first period. He took a puck to the facemask. Hitchcock said he should be OK for Friday’s game in Los Angeles. Lehtonen saved 12 of 14 shots.Couture put the Sharks ahead 1-0 when he got a pass from Brent Burns and fired it into the net from long range midway through the first period.Meier added to the lead six minutes later after chasing down a puck that had bounced off Lehtonen’s pads. He fired from the right side, finding a hole under Lehtonen’s glove.”You don’t want to be on your heels,” Meier said. ”We were on our heels and you can’t do that late in the season. A thing like that can’t happen again.”Benn made it 2-1 late in the second period, redirecting a centering pass from John Klingberg off Martin Jones‘ shoulder pad and into the net.”After the second period we regrouped and refocused,” Benn said. ”We found a way to put together 20 good minutes and found a way to win.”NOTES: Benn has points in 10 of his last 13 games. … Stars C Tyler Seguin has points in each of his past four games and six of seven overall. … Sharks F Evander Kane missed the game with an apparent arm injury suffered at Las Vegas on Saturday night. … Sharks C Dylan Gambrell made his NHL debut. … The Sharks signed Sasha Chmelevski to a contract and assigned him to the AHL Barracudas.UP NEXTStars: Play at the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.Sharks: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday.—