JJ Peterka scored a hat trick, and the Buffalo Sabres defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 7-3 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo on Saturday in Lindy Ruff’s return as coach.

Ruff was hired for his second tenure to replace Don Granato on April 22. He’s the winningest coach in Sabres history (571-432-84 with 78 ties in 1,165 regular-season games).

Henri Jokiharju had a goal and two assists for the Sabres. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 15 saves.

Jesse Puljujarvi had a hat trick for the Penguins. Joel Blomqvist allowed six goals on 24 shots; Filip Larsson made 18 saves in relief.

Each team was playing its first game of the preseason.

Puljujarvi gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead on the power play 1:08 into the first period.

Peterka tied it 1-1 for the Sabres at 3:25 on the power play.

Peterka scored again 46 seconds into the second period to make it 2-1 Sabres.

Owen Power gave the Sabres a 3-1 lead at 2:29. Jokiharju made it 4-1 Sabres at 3:29. Sam Lafferty made it 5-1 Sabres at 4:20.

Peterka completed his hat trick at 5:26 to make it 6-1.

Dylan Cozens made it 7-1 Sabres at 3:42 of the third period.

Puljujavri scored at at 8:33 and 8:52 to finish his hat trick for the 7-3 final.

Stars 2, Blues 1: Kyle Capobianco and Colin Blackwell scored for the Dallas Stars in their win against the St. Louis Blues at American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Casey DeSmith stopped all 14 shots he faced through the first two periods for the Stars before he was replaced by Magnus Hellberg, who made seven saves in the third.

Kasperi Kapanen scored for the Blues. Jordan Binnington saved all 10 shots he faced in the first period for the Blues before giving way to Colten Ellis, who made 14 saves.

Each team was playing its first game of the preseason.

Capobianco gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 17:25 of the second period when his wrist shot from the right point deflected in off Blues forward Alexey Toropchenko’s stick.

Blackwell made it 2-0 at 10:46 of the third with a snap shot from the top of the left face-off circle.

Kapanen cut it to 2-1 at 14:44, taking a pass from Zach Dean in front and lifting a shot over Hellberg’s glove.