{"id":438511,"date":"2026-01-28T11:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/438511\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T11:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:23:07","slug":"dahlins-first-hat-trick-leads-buffalo-sabres-over-slumping-toronto-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/438511\/","title":{"rendered":"Dahlin’s first hat trick leads Buffalo Sabres over slumping Toronto Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Rasmus Dahlin<\/a> registered the first hat trick of his NHL career to go along with two assists as the Buffalo Sabres<\/a> heaped more misery on the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> in a 7-4 victory Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Tage Thompson<\/a>, with a goal and an assist in his 500th NHL game, Josh Doan<\/a>, Alex Tuch<\/a> and Jack Quinn<\/a> provided the rest of the offence for Buffalo (30-17-5), which has won four straight.<\/p>\n

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen<\/a> allowed two goals on five shots before leaving with a lower-body injury in the first period. Colten Ellis<\/a> made 16 saves in relief to get the win. Mattias Samuelsson<\/a> added three assists. <\/p>\n

Auston Matthews<\/a> and Max Domi<\/a> each had a goal and two assists for Toronto (24-20-9). Bobby McMann<\/a>, with a goal and an assist, and Matthew Knies<\/a> also scored. Joseph Woll<\/a> stopped 24 shots. <\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs came home last week off a successful road trip, but finished their disastrous five-game homestand with a solitary point (0-4-1) and have dropped seven of eight overall (1-5-2) to tumble down the Eastern Conference standings.<\/p>\n

The club entered play six points back of the second wild-card spot and are now eight adrift of the Sabres in the Atlantic Division.<\/p>\n

TAKEAWAYS<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs: Darryl Sittler<\/a> was honoured before puck drop in a ceremony marking 50 years since he set an NHL record by registering 10 points in a game. The former Toronto captain had six goals and four assists in an 11-4 victory over the Boston Bruins<\/a> on Feb. 7, 1976.<\/p>\n

Sabres: Doan scored his first goal since signing a seven-year contract extension. Doan\u2019s father, Shane, is a special adviser to Toronto general manager Brad Treliving.<\/p>\n

KEY MOMENT<\/p>\n

Dahlin scored the go-ahead goal when the Buffalo captain found himself in front of Woll off a cycle before tipping a point shot from Samuelsson \u2014 his defenceman partner \u2014 late in the second period for a 4-3 lead. <\/p>\n

KEY STAT<\/p>\n

The Sabres have an NHL-best 19-3-1 record since Dec. 9.<\/p>\n

UP NEXT<\/p>\n

Sabres: Host the Los Angeles Kings<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs: Visit the Seattle Kraken<\/a> on Thursday. <\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2026.<\/p>\n

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Rasmus Dahlin registered the first hat trick of his NHL career to go along with two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-438511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}