RALEIGH — Of course Jeff Skinner scored a goal in his return to PNC Arena on Friday night. But the Carolina Hurricanes upstaged their erstwhile young dynamo thanks to a hat trick of Buffalo Sabres own goals and a Justin Faulk one-punch takedown on their way to an 4-2 win, their sixth win in the last seven games.
Three times, the Canes were rewarded with goals that went in directly off of a Buffalo defender. The first opened the scoring, Micheal Ferland getting credit for a goal that looked like hockey version of the old Michael Jordan/Larry Bird McDonald’s commercials: off the back of Sabres goalie Carter Hutton, off the top of the net, back into the crease and finally in off Marco Scandella.