Reinhart's hat trick leads Sabres past Preds in high-scoring affair
Sam Reinhart had a hat trick, and the Buffalo Sabres emerged from a lamp-lighting second period with five goals en route to a 7-4 win over the host Nashville Predators on Saturday at Bridgestone Arena.
The two teams combined for seven goals in the busy second period, but the Sabres scored three straight goals in the last five minutes of the period, with Reinhart scoring twice in a 134-second spurt to first tie the game at four and go ahead 5-4.
Reinhart added a third goal at the 8:17 mark of the third period, giving him his 21st, 22nd and 23rd goals of the season for the Sabres, who won for the second time in three games after a four-game losing streak.
Reinhart wasn't the only Sabre to score in a flurry as Kyle Okposo had a pair of second-period goals, his 12th and 13th of the season. Ryan O'Reilly had a goal and two assists, and Jack Eichel had five assists. Jason Pominville opened the scoring with his 13th goal of the season just 43 seconds into the game to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead.
P.K. Subban put in a power-play goal just more than two minutes later for his 16th goal of the season, and Austin Watson added a goal at the 17-minute mark of the first period to give the Predators an early 2-1 lead.
Kyle Turris scored his 16th of the season just two minutes into the second period as Nashville went up 3-1. O'Reilly and Okposo both scored to tie it at 3, but Nick Bonino poked in his 12th of the season 12:50 into the period.
Nashville was aggressive late to tie the shots-on-goal battle at 36, but Predators star goalie Pekka Rinne allowed six goals.
The Sabres stay on the road on Monday with a game at Toronto.
Nashville, which had a two-game winning streak broken with the loss, heads on the road for three straight starting on Sunday at Tampa Bay.
--Field Level Media
