The Hockey News Morning Skate: McKenna Benched In Maple Leafs Loss, Tkachuk Posts Back-To-Back Hat Tricks

Welcome to The Hockey News Morning Skate, where we give a quick recap of all the action from the NHL every weekday morning so you stay up to date.

After a quiet Wednesday evening, 22 teams hit the ice in an 11-game slate on Thursday in what ended up being an action-packed evening of hockey.

Let's run through the biggest storylines that emerged from last night, and make sure to check out the video version of this story above.

Owen Power capped off a two-goal comeback for the Buffalo Sabres with an overtime winner to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4. Rookie Gavin McKenna played just over six minutes and was sat for essentially the entire second half of the game. John Tavares exited after a scary collision with Josh Norris. It was not a fun night for the home crowd.

If you're a Maple Leafs fan looking for a silver lining, Auston Matthews stayed hot with his sixth goal of the season, bringing him to 13 points in eight games. Additionally, Kirill Marchenko recorded a hat trick to give him four goals and nine points in eight games.

Brady Tkachuk made history in the Florida Panthers' 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday, becoming the first player since Canucks forward Petri Skriko in the 1986-87 season to score back-to-back natural hat tricks. He now has eight points in his last three games after going pointless in his first five appearances.

After going down by two goals, Tkachuk scored twice in the final 10 minutes of the third period, including the equalizer with 13 seconds remaining in the game. He capped off an eventful night with the overtime winner on a sweet curl-and-drag shot that beat Canucks goaltender Levi Merilainen.

Matt Boldy scored a hat trick of his own on Thursday and finished with four points to lead the Minnesota Wild to a 5-4 win over the St. Louis Blues. Boldy is the third-fastest active American skater to record five career hat tricks, behind only Tage Thompson and Jason Robertson.

It's hard to believe that Boldy is only 25 and has three more years left on his seven-year contract with the Wild, carrying a modest $7 million cap hit. Considering the rising salary cap and the gigantic contracts that were handed out this summer, this might be one of the best bargains in the league.

The Utah Mammoth handed the Edmonton Oilers their first regulation loss of the season with a 4-2 victory, climbing to first place in the Central Division and putting together a three-game winning streak.

The Mammoth currently have the third-best goal differential (+10) and also have the second-best power play in the league as things stand. After burying two with the man-advantage on Thursday, the Mammoth are operating at 34.5 percent on the power play.

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