The Buffalo Sabres spanked the Boston Bruins 7-2 on Tuesday at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York. The game was memorable because for the first time this season teammates had a hat trick in the same game as centre Tage Thompson of Phoenix, Arizona and right winger JJ Peterka of Munich, Germany accomplished the feat.
Tage Thompson
For Thompson this was his seventh career NHL hat trick and on Tuesday he scored a goal in all three periods. Thompson’s first goal tied the game at one from Peterka and Dylan Cozens of Whitehorse, Yukon at 13:39 of the first period. He then put the Sabres up 2-1 at 4:43 of the second period from Ryan McLeod of Mississauga, Ontario and defenseman Mattias Samuelsson of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thompson’s hat trick put the Sabres up 4-1 at 3:13 of the third period from defensemen Rasmus Dahlin of Lidkoping, Sweden and Bowen Byram of Cranbrook, British Columbia.
Thompson’s first NHL hat trick came on February 19, 2022 in a 5-3 Sabres loss to the Colorado Avalanche. That was followed by hat tricks in an 8-3 Sabres win over the Detroit Red Wings on Halloween, 2022, in a 9-4 Sabres win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on December 7, 2022 (five goals), in a 5-4 Sabres win over the Washington Capitals on January 3, 2023, in a 6-5 Sabres win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on February 23, 2023, and in a 5-2 Sabres win over the New Jersey Devils on March 29, 2024 (three goals).
In 2024-25, Thompson has 25 goals and 19 assists for 44 points in 45 games. He is a +5 with 15 penalty minutes, 11 power-play points, one game-winning goal, 142 shots on goal, 200 faceoff wins, 21 blocked shots, 41 hits, 15 takeaways, and 25 giveaways. Thompson’s game-winning goal came at 4:17 of the third period from Alex Tuch of Syracuse, New York and defenseman Owen Power of Mississauga, Ontario in a 4-2 Sabres win over the Dallas Stars on October 22. At the time, the Sabres went up 3-0.
JJ Peterka
This was Peterka’s first career NHL hat trick. His first goal on Tuesday was at 6:32 of the second period from Power and Thompson. It was also the game-winning goal and put the Sabres up 3-1 at the time. Peterka’s second goal was at 10:43 of the third period and from Jiri Kulich of Kadan, Czech Republic to put the Sabres up 5-2. Peterka then scored an unassisted empty net goal at 14:26 of the third period to put the Sabres up 6-2.
Peterka has 14 goals and 25 assists for 39 points this season in 48 games. He is a -2 with 10 penalty minutes, 10 power-play points, three game-winning goals, 105 shots on goal, two faceoff wins, seven blocked shots, 19 hits, 11 takeaways and 49 giveaways.
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