Buffalo cut a four-goal deficit to one, but Nikita Kucherov answered with three straight goals as Tampa Bay pulled away for an 8-3 victory

BUFFALO — Nikita Kucherov scored a natural hat trick in the third period and John Carlson produced the first five-point game of his NHL career as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Buffalo Sabres 8-3 Wednesday at KeyBank Center.

Tampa Bay built a 4-0 lead through Scott Sabourin, Carlson, Brandon Hagel and Yanni Gourde. Buffalo then found a response. Josh Doan and Jason Zucker scored late in the second period, and Tage Thompson made it 4-3 only 33 seconds into the third.

The comeback ended almost immediately. Kucherov scored on a breakaway at 1:25 of the third, then converted Carlson’s pass from the right circle less than three minutes later. He completed the natural hat trick on a power play at 14:13 before setting up Hagel’s second goal 53 seconds later.

Kucherov finished with four points. Carlson had one goal and four assists, reached 800 career points and set a personal best for points in one game. Jake Guentzel also recorded the first four-assist game of his career. Rookie Sam O’Reilly earned his first NHL point in his league debut with an assist on Gourde’s goal.

The final score was striking because Tampa Bay needed only 22 shots to score eight times. Buffalo had 31 shots and carried long stretches of play, but the Lightning created cleaner chances off the rush and punished mistakes. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves, including two during Buffalo’s push for a tying goal just before Kucherov’s first tally.

Tampa Bay improved to 12-4-2 and is 5-1-2 in its past eight games. Buffalo dropped to 8-7-3 after losing three of four and finished its four-game homestand with one win. The Sabres now open a six-game road trip Thursday in Chicago.