Penguins Beat Sabres; Clinch Playoff Berth

It’s safe to say last night’s 3-1 victory at KeyBank Center in Buffalo was a bit of a mixed bag for our Penguins.

On the good news side of the ledger, our guys moved into second place in the Metro Division and clinched their eleventh-straight playoff berth.

The bad news? Jake Guentzel, hotter than a proverbial Fourth of July firecracker, suffered a concussion when he was flattened in the first period on a blindside check by mammoth Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. Well away from the puck.

Nor did linemate Sidney Crosby escape unscathed. The black-and-gold captain was waylaid by Buffalo forward Evander Kane just as he prepared to score into an empty net, costing him a goal and a tooth.

The injury to Guentzel? Particularly galling. Including the Pens’ previous victory over the Sabres on March 5, the scrappy rookie had collected four goals and six assists over a nine-game span, while displaying near telepathic chemistry with Crosby and Conor Sheary.

“We’re hopeful it won’t be an extended period of time,” coach Mike Sullivan said, commenting on Jake’s anticipated absence. “But we’ll wait and see.”

Displaying their trademark R & R (resilience and resolve) the Pens closed ranks and kept pluggin’. Sparked, no doubt, by a sensational power-play goal by Crosby mere seconds before the first-period horn.

In one of those seminal moments that have defined his career, Sid took a drop pass from Justin Schultz deep in his zone and raced through the neutral zone. Accelerating as he crossed the Buffalo blue line, Crosby spied an opening and split four defenders with an extra burst of speed.

Coiled in a panther-like crouch, No. 87 fended off defenseman Zach Bogosian with his left arm while shoveling the puck on net one-handed. The rubber sailed over goalie Robin Lehner’s outstretched glove.

The Sabres were stunned. So were Sid’s teammates.

“That’s a play that everyone messes around doing in practice, and he does it in games,” Nick Bonino said. “The sea parted for him there, only 15 seconds left, he turned it on and that’s a huge goal at the end of a period.”

Speaking of turning it on. “Bones” struck for his sixth goal in the past eight games at 14:31 of the third period on a busted play to break a tense 1-1 tie.

Making like injured teammate Kris Letang, Ian Cole grabbed a short pass from Tom Kuhnhackl and flew into the Sabres’ end. Cole tried to feed Patric Hornqvist cruising down the right side, but the puck hit the stick of defenseman Brady Austin and bounded back to the left faceoff dot.

Alertly trailing the play in Franco Harris, Immaculate Reception fashion, Bonino scooped up the loose change and rifled it over Lehner’s shoulder for his 15th goal of the season.

Sheary was next in line for a little puck luck. Stoned by Lehner on an early breakaway, the sparkplug winger pounced on a loose puck in the neutral zone, sped past veteran Josh Georges, and unleashed a shot from a sharp angle. The rubber kicked off Lehner’s pads and onto the stick blade of onrushing backchecker Zemgus Girgensons, who inadvertently steered it home.

Crosby’s dental misfortunes aside, the Pens closed out the win without further injury or incident.

Puckpourri

Pens goalie Matt Murray returned to form last night, stopping 29 of 30 shots to earn his 28th win of the season. Buffalo’s Sam Reinhart foiled his shutout bid on a sharp-angle shot at 2:09 of the third period.

Frank Corrado made his black-and-gold debut last night. Acquired at the trade deadline, the 23-year-old defenseman skated 14 shifts (9:01 TOI), registered a hit and finished a minus-1. Corrado replaced Derrick Pouliot, who returned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Injured right wing Bryan Rust has resumed skating. No word on when he’ll return.

In addition to Guentzel, Tom Sestito joined the long list of wounded Pens. The heavyweight forward sat out last night with an upper-body injury. His spot was filled by Oskar Sundqvist.

The Pens outshot the Sabres, 35-30. Buffalo won 58 percent of the faceoffs.