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Video: Zetterberg’s hat trick sinks struggling Sabres

Henrik Zetterberg

Henrik Zetterberg’s sixth career hat trick helped the Detroit Red Wings battle back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the Buffalo Sabres 6-4 Sunday night.

The loss is the 11th consecutive for the Sabres while the Red Wings have now won five straight.

Buffalo had the start they wanted.

Drew Stafford, Tyler Ennis and Chris Stewart scored on the Sabres’ first six shots of the night giving Buffalo an early 3-0 lead and chasing Red Wings starter Petr Mrazek.

“We had a great first period, maybe our best period of the year,” Ennis said per NHL.com. “But it sounds like a broken record, we took some penalties and they came out strong in the second.”

Thomas McCollum came on in relief.

“Obviously we were embarrassed. That was as bad as we’ve been,” said Red Wings coach, Mike Babcock. “It wasn’t totally a surprise to me. This was a trap game. We’ve played two real good teams (St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators) in a row and found ways to win. It’s a back-to-back, so you don’t have time to get in here and get organized and feeling good about yourself. You don’t prepare like you should.”

Detroit roared back with three straight second period goals.

Gustav Nyquist, Drew Miller and Tomas Tatar all found the back of the net by the midway mark of the second period. Nyquist and Tatar also added assists in the win.

Ennis’ added his second of the night near the midway mark of the third pulling the Sabres to within one, but Zetterberg’s third of the night at 11:59 put the game out of reach.

McCollum, originally the first-round pick of the Red Wings (30th overall) in 2008, made seven saves for his first career NHL win.

Jhonas Enroth stopped 20 shots in the loss.

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