The Buffalo Sabres needed everything that Jack Quinn had to give on Thursday night to come from behind and defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs.
At one point, Buffalo trailed 4-2, but the Sabres scored twice to force overtime and then won it in OT on a goal from Owen Power.
This was Quinn’s night, though.
The Sabres needed goals, and he had two.
The Sabres needed distribution, and Quinn dished out two assists.
And even when Buffalo needed fists, Quinn provided those, too.
It was a “Gordie Howe Hat Trick” for Quinn, and it was a win for the Sabres.
Gordie Howe Hat Trick
It’s an unofficial term, but it came to represent a game in which a player had a goal, had an assist and got in a fight.
Howe was one of the best players ever, and he also knew how to mix it up.
On Thursday night, Quinn upped the ante with two goals and two assists.
The fight? It was against Toronto’s Troy Stecher, and it was just the second of Quinn’s career.
This is how The Athletic’s Matthew Fairburn described the scene:
“With less than five minutes left in the second period, Jack Quinn was skating back to the bench when Troy Stecher skated into him and immediately wanted to fight. Quinn had one NHL fight on his resume coming into the game. But he obliged and ended up skating off the ice with blood on the bridge of his nose and a smile on his face.”
Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff acknowledged that it was quite the night for Quinn.
“We’ll give him the Gordie Howe (hat trick) on that one, barely,” Ruff said, via Fairburn. “It does a lot (for the bench). You can see the smile on his face at the same time. I think there’s moments inside of a season, inside of a game, that you got to use to help build energy, build the camaraderie of the team. That was a moment for it.”
Jack Quinn’s Scoring
Quinn was quick to get the Sabres on the board on Thursday night.
Buffalo actually fell behind after less than two-and-a-half minutes on a goal from Auston Matthews, but only 71 seconds later, Quinn had tied it.
The Maple Leafs went ahead 2-1, but then Quinn tied it less than three minutes into the second period.
Quinn then set up the Dennis Gilbert goal that brought the Sabres within 4-3 in the third period.
He didn’t have a part in the fourth goal, when Tage Thompson fed Mattias Samuelsson to force overtime.
But in OT, it was Quinn with the pinpoint pass to Owen Power, who finished the night off with the winning goal.
“It’s the best game I’ve seen him play,” Ruff said of Quinn.
The Sabres certainly needed every bit of it.
Sabres’ Jack Quinn Notches Gordie Howe Hat Trick vs. Maple Leafs