Hot Penguins Skewer Hapless Sabres

“That’s easy!”

Words uttered by the brave Sir Robin in the comedy classic, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He’d just watched Sir Lancelot answer three questions to gain safe passage over the Bridge of Death.

Well, the Penguins had their own safe passage last night, successfully negotiating a potential letdown game to skewer the hapless Sabres by a score of 5-2. The victory, our fourth in a row and fifth in our last six, enabled us to maintain a tenuous hold on third place in the MassMutual East.

Once again our speed was telling, factoring in on four of our five goals. At 6:27 of the first period, Kasperi Kapanen stole the puck from Casey Mittelstadt and raced in goalie Jonas Johansson with Evgeni Malkin trailing the play. After getting Johansson to bite with a nifty sleight of hand, No. 42 slipped the biscuit to No. 71 for an easy goal. (There’s that word again.)

To their credit, the Sabres hung tough for a while. Just 27 seconds after Malkin’s marker, giant Tage Thompson, all 6’7” of him, made use of his Pteranodon wingspan to score on a wraparound and knot the score at one apiece.

The Pens retook the lead early in the second period on a nice bit of teamwork by the third line. Teddy Blueger sprang Brandon Tanev with a bounce pass off the side boards and “Turbo” did the rest, scooting into the Buffalo zone and beating Johansson with a backhander through the five-hole.

Again the Sabres replied. Ex-Pen Riley Sheahan skirted Kris Letang with a surprising burst of speed and slipped a Crosby-esque against-the-grain pass to Victor Olofsson, who rifled the puck past Tristan Jarry. But our bounce-back birds would not be denied. Working on a power play minutes later, Jake Guentzel coolly measured his target, then smoked a perfectly placed shot past Johansson inside the far post. A goal-scorer’s goal.

The Sabres had their moments, mostly in the form of shots ringing off the iron. Colin Miller hit two posts in rapid succession. In all, the home team must’ve hit five or six posts. Such is the puck luck of a 6-15-4 team.

Next it was Anthony Angello’s turn to shine. The big winger, who grew up a Sabres fan in nearby Manlius, made a nice individual play to bat down a fluttering puck and whip it past Johansson from the right circle. The goal gave the Pens a comfortable 4-2 lead just minutes into the third period.

Making like GM Ron Hextall, Jarry tried to score into an empty net in the waning minutes, leading to Bryan Rust’s tap-in to close out the proceedings.

Oh…whatever became of the brave Sir Robin?

Overconfident, he failed to correctly answer his “questions three” and was thrown into the Gorge of Eternal Peril. Perhaps a caution for our guys to maintain their focus and intensity for Saturday night’s return match with the Sabres. Especially with two games against Boston looming just around the corner.

Puckpourri

The Pens outshot the Sabres, 27-23, and capitalized on some sloppy play by their hosts (a dozen giveaways).

Malkin paced the Pens with a goal and an assist to earn top-star honors. Geno’s re-emergence (three goals, nine points in his last six games) is a huge factor in our recent success. He and Kapanen (four goals, eight points over the same span) continue to make beautiful music together.

All but three of the black-and-gold forwards tallied at least a point. It’s beginning to remind me of our good stretch last season when we consistently won with total team efforts.

To illustrate my point, the Pens have 11 skaters who’ve scored four or more goals this season. By contrast, the Caps have 10 and the Islanders and Flyers have eight each. The top-heavy Bruins? Only six.

Opinyinz

Speaking of depth, is it just my imagination (runnin’ away with me) or has the fourth line suddenly sprung to life? Indeed, the Mulligan stew trio of Angello, Mark Jankowski and recently waived Colton Sceviour have shown decent chemistry the past couple of games.

Angello has been particularly impressive. He skates well for a big man and uses the body (28 hits in seven games while seeing limited ice time). Despite his aggressive nature, he’s shown good discipline (no penalties) and isn’t as mistake-prone as fellow youngster and fourth line wanna-be Sam Lafferty.

While Angello’s not a great fighter by any stretch, he’ll mix it up when the situation calls for it and isn’t shy about who he takes on.

Could our needed physical presence have been right under our noses the whole time? Perhaps.