Jack Eichel had a goal and assist in his return to action following his high-ankle injury.
From sabres.com: OTTAWA, ONTARIO — Jack Eichel had a goal and an assist in his first game of the season to help the Buffalo Sabres to a 5-4 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday.
Eichel, who missed 21 games with a high ankle sprain, assisted on Kyle Okposo’s power-play goal and made it 2-0 with his first goal, also on the power play, and the Sabres (8-9-5) won for the first time in three games.
Ryan O’Reilly had two goals and Sam Reinhart also scored for Buffalo. Robin Lehner allowed a goal on six shots before he left the game with 2:12 left in the first period. He was replaced by Anders Nilsson, who made 26 saves.
Mike Hoffman got his first career NHL hat trick and Mark Stone scored for the Senators (14-8-1), who saw their four-game win streak end. Craig Anderson made 23 saves.
The Sabres had scored more than two goals in a game once in November (13 games) before Eichel’s return sparked the offense in the first period. He made a sharp diagonal pass to Okposo whose attempted pass in front went in off Senators defenseman Cody Ceci to give Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 6:16.
Eichel scored at 9:31 of the first to make it 2-0 with a one-timer to Anderson’s stick side.
Hoffman scored to make it 2-1 at 13:47 of the first and O’Reilly scored 31 seconds later to make it 3-1 after the first period.
Stone got his fourth goal in the past five games on the power play at 8:20 of the second period to make it 3-2, the first time this season the Senators scored power-play goals in back-to-back games.
A pass by Evander Kane along the goal line deflected in off Reinhart’s skate to make it 4-2 at 17:08. Hoffman scored his second of the game 43 seconds later to make it 4-3.
O’Reilly made it 5-3 at 16:43 of the third period on the man-advantage.
Hoffman completed the hat trick on the power play at 18:29 to pull the Senators within 5-4.