O’Reilly has hat trick, assist in Maple Leafs win against Sabres

BUFFALO — Ryan O’Reilly scored a hat trick and had an assist for the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 6-3 win against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center on Tuesday.

The three goals were the first for O’Reilly in three games since Toronto acquired the center from the St. Louis Blues with center Noel Acciari on Friday in a three-team trade that included the Minnesota Wild.

John Tavares had a goal and three assists, and Mitchell Marner had five assists for the Maple Leafs (35-15-8), who have won nine of their past 14 games. Ilya Samsonov made 29 saves.

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen allowed four goals on 10 shots for the Sabres (28-23-4) before he was replaced by Craig Anderson (17 saves). Alex Tuch had a goal and an assist for Buffalo, which is 2-4-1 in its past six.

O’Reilly gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 3:51 of the first period after taking a diagonal pass from Marner in the slot. He made it 2-0 37 seconds later when he lifted a backhand over Luukkonen’s glove off another pass from Marner at 4:28.

Tavares scored on a rebound in front to push it to 3-0 at 7:14, leading to the Sabres calling a timeout.

Michael Bunting made it 4-0 at 12:09 by scoring to the short side from low in the left face-off circle, chasing Luukkonen.

William Nylander extended it to 5-0 on the power play at 14:36 of the second period with a shot from the left side.

Jack Quinn cut it to 5-1 at 5:12 of the third period on a wrist shot from the right circle, and Tuch pulled Buffalo within 5-2 at 8:01 from the bottom of the right circle to the far side.

Jeff Skinner cut it to 5-3 at 16:29 from the top of the left circle.

O’Reilly scored into an empty net at 18:50 for the 6-3 final.