Buffalo’s John Hayden punches Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Ben Hutton during a second-period fight. Jeffrey T. Barnes/Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Craig Anderson stopped 30 shots to win his 300th career game and Buffalo defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 3-1 in a game during which former Sabres captain Jack Eichel was mostly booed Thursday night in his first visit to his former home.

Victor Olofsson scored the go-ahead goal on the power play with 3:44 remaining.

And charging up Sabres fans even further was Buffalo’s opening goal being scored by Peyton Krebs and Alex Tuch sealing the win by scoring into an empty net with 36 seconds remaining. Both players were acquired in the trade that sent Eichel to Vegas on Nov. 4.

Buffalo snapped a two-game skid and won for just the third time in nine games, with Anderson becoming the 39th goalie to reach 300 wins. From Illinois, he became the sixth U.S. goalie to reach the milestone, and is one behind former New York Rangers star Mike Richter.

Eichel was limited to two shots on goal in a game he was dogged by boos each time he stepped on the ice. It was the 25-year-old’s first game in Buffalo since Feb. 28, 2021, which came eight days before he was sustained a herniated disk in a 5-2 loss on Long Island.

How to treat the injury — the Sabres favored fusion surgery while Eichel preferred an artificial disk replacement procedure — led to an eight-month stalemate between the player and the Sabres, which eventually forced his trade. The game against Buffalo was Eichel’s 11th since having the replacement procedure shortly after landing in Vegas.

Eichel’s presence attracted what appeared to be the largest turnout of the season in Buffalo with an attendance of 12, 437.

COYOTES 5, MAPLE LEAFS 4: Defenseman Jakob Chychrun scored his second goal of the game at 2:17 of overtime to give Arizona a win at Toronto.

Arizona recovered for its fourth straight victory after blowing a 4-1 lead in the third period. Alex Galchenyuk had a goal and an assist, Travis Boyd and Christian Fischer also scored,and Scott Wedgewood made 34 saves.

JETS 2, DEVILS 1: Kyle Connor scored his team-leading 35th goal late in the second period to snap a tie and lead Winnipeg to a win at Newark, New Jersey.

Eric Comrie made 33 saves while beating the team for which he made one start last season. Defenseman Brenden Dillion also scored as the Jets won for the fourth time in six games (4-1-1).

Jack Hughes scored for the Devils in extending his home-scoring steak to 13 games (9 goals, 12 assists). Nico Daws made 28 saves as New Jersey had its two-game winning streak snapped.

SENATORS 4, KRAKEN 3: Josh Norris scored twice in his 100th career game, including the winning power-play goal 2:34 into overtime, and Ottawa won at home.

Brady Tkachuk and Parker Kelly also scored for the Senators in the opener of a five-game homestand. Anton Forsberg made 30 saves.

Jared McCann, Ryan Donato and Mason Appleton scored for the Kraken.

ISLANDERS 6, BLUE JACKETS 0: Anders Lee got his first career hat trick and Ilya Sorokin stopped 25 shots for his sixth shutout of the season as New York beat visiting Columbus.

Josh Bailey had a goal and an assist, Brock Nelson and Jean-Gabriel Pageau also scored and Ryan Pulock and Anthony Beauvillier each had three assists to help New York win for the second time in three games.

Joonas Korpisalo made 27 saves in his first start since Jan. 31st for the Blue Jackets, who have lost two straight. Columbus was 0 for 4 on the power play.

HURRICANES 2, AVALANCHE 0: Ethan Bear scored the game’s first goal with 5:40 left and Sebastian Aho added an empty-netter to help Carolina win at home.

Antti Raanta had 36 saves for his second shutout this season for the Hurricanes, who have won 8 of 10.

PANTHERS 6, FLYERS 3: Sam Reinhart had his sixth career hat trick, Carter Verhaeghe scored twice and visiting Florida won its fifth straight.

Jonathan Huberdeau and Aaron Ekblad each had four assists for Florida. Anthony Duclair also scored, and Aleksander Barkov had two assists for Florida, which tied a season best by scoring three times on the power play.

PREDATORS 4, DUCKS 1: Matt Duchene had two goals and an assist, Juuse Saros made 27 saves and Nashville beat visiting Anaheim.

Filip Forsberg had a goal and two assists and Colton Sissons also scored for the Predators, winners of three straight.

Adam Henrique scored and John Gibson made 26 saves for Anaheim, which has lost 3 of 4.

WILD 6, RED WINGS 5: Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Fiala both scored in the shootout, lifting Minnesota to a win at Detroit.

Matt Boldy scored twice in regulation, and Zuccarello, Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek also had goals to help Minnesota sweep the season series. Cam Talbot made 29 saves and stopped Jakub Vrana and Dylan Larkin in the shootout to seal the Wild’s second straight win.

BLUES 6, RANGERS 2: Robert Thomas scored twice and visiting St. Louis broke a four-game losing streak.

David Perron, Jake Walman, Ivan Barbashev and Ryan O’Reilly also scored for the Blues, who were 0-3-1 in their skid and remained two points ahead of Minnesota in second place in the Central Division. Ville Husso made 27 saves to improve to 14-4-3 on the season.

Ryan Strome and K’Andre Miller scored for the Rangers. Igor Shesterkin gave up four goals on 17 shots before replaced by Alexander Georgiev, who finished with 16 saves as the Rangers lost their second in a row after winning three straight.

NOTES

FLYERS: The Philadelphia Flyers signed defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen to a five-year contract extension, the team announced.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS: The Vegas Golden Knights sent home starting goalie Robin Lehner to further evaluate a lower-body injury.

Coach Pete DeBoer didn’t provide details on the injury except to say it’s not related to the upper-body injury that led to Lehner missing five games late last month.

Lehner is 2-2 since his return and was coming off a 19-save outing in a 2-1 loss at Philadelphia on Tuesday.

MAPLE LEAFS: The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without No. 1 goaltender Jack Campbell for at least the next two weeks because of a rib injury, Coach Sheldon Keefe said.

Keefe said the 30-year-old Campbell “tweaked something” a while ago and then aggravated the issue during a 26-save performance in Tuesday night’s 6-4 victory over the Seattle Kraken.