Alex Tuch scored his second career hat trick to help the Buffalo Sabres to a 6-3 win against the host Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
Jeff Skinner had a goal and an assist and Casey Mittelstadt had three assists for the Sabres (37-31-7, 81 points), who moved to within four points of the Florida Panthers for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, with two games in hand. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 39 saves.
Morgan Frost scored twice and Felix Sandstrom made 23 saves for the Flyers (29-33-13, 71 points), who had their seven-game point streak snapped.
Frost put Philadelphia ahead 1-0 at 16:35 of the first period, scooping up the puck in the right circle for a shot from the faceoff dot that beat Luukkonen short side.
Kyle Okposo connected with 10 seconds left in the period to tie it 1-1, sending a 2-on-1 feed from Peyton Krebs from the inner right circle top corner on the near side.
Tuch took a short drop pass from Mittelstadt and scored under the bar from the slot to give the Sabres a 2-1 lead at 1:35 of the middle frame.
Jordan Greenway tallied for the second time in as many nights to make it 3-1 at 2:40 when he collected a rebound on the doorstep.
Skinner pushed it to 4-1 at 3:46. Mittelstadt sent a cross-ice pass to the uncovered winger for a shot from the right circle. Sandstrom made the save but Skinner kept towards the net to get the rebound.
But the Flyers quickly responded, with Frost notching his second of the night from the inner left circle just 22 seconds later, cutting it to 5-2.
Travis Konecny, in his return after missing 16 games due to injury, narrowed it to 5-3 from high in the left circle off a Philadelphia faceoff win at 5:11 of the third period.
–Field Level Media
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