Penguins Buffaloed, Drop Shootout to Sabres

Beware the Sabres.

That’s a warning that hasn’t been sounded around the league for quite some time. Not with Buffalo poised to miss the playoffs for a tenth-straight season. But the Sabres just might be a team to be reckoned with in the not-too-distant future.

The Pens lost to those improving Sabres, 4-3, in a shootout last night at KeyBank Center. If our guys appeared to be a tad sluggish skating in the second of back-to-back games, the home team contributed a great deal by not affording us much room to operate.

Bryan Rust nearly staked us to an early lead at 15:41 of the first period, but his shorthanded bid rang harmlessly off a goal post. Minutes later Mattias Samuelsson set up Tage Thompson to the right of our net. How a 6’7” winger escaped the Pens’ attention is hard to say, but he was all alone. With Casey DeSmith at his mercy, Thompson ripped a shot home high glove side.

Sidney Crosby evened the score while working with the man advantage 26 ticks into the second frame. Taking a beautiful cross-seam pass from Rust in stride, Sid beat Craig Anderson through the five-hole.

The die was set. Each time the Sabres scored, the Pens would reply in call-and-respond fashion.

Five minutes later DeSmith made a huge stop on Zemgus Girgensons on a breakaway and follow-up attempt. But Teddy Blueger’s countryman would not be denied. With four minutes left in the frame Girgensons struck from the doorstep, finishing off an effective cycle and a short pass from Kyle Okposo.

Again our guys responded. With 1:14 remaining in the period, Rust chipped the puck away from Rasmus Dahlin along the boards to Evgeni Malkin stationed behind the net. Geno flipped an innocuous, wing-and-a-prayer backhander to the slot, with extraordinary results. The puck glanced off Anderson’s blade, the shin of Henri Jokiharju and back through Anderson’s exposed five-hole to knot the score at 2-apiece.

The magic dust wore off quickly. A minute into the final frame big Alex Tuch circled our net and fed Thompson, once again all alone in the right circle. (Must’ve been wearing his Inviso-Shield.) Again the rangy winger buried the biscuit behind DeSmith to make it 3-2 bad guys.

The Pens clawed back once more, courtesy of a penalty to Vinnie Hinostroza. Moving the puck with pinpoint precision, Sid won the faceoff and drew the puck back to Kris Letang, who fed Rust along the left wall to kick off an around the horn passing sequence. Rusty quickly moved the rubber to Crosby in the left corner, who in turn hit Malkin on the far side, who briskly fed Letang in the high slot. Tanger blew the puck past Anderson to knot the score and send the game to overtime.

Following a disjointed extra frame, the contest went to a shootout. While Anderson stopped Rust and Crosby, Buffalo’s T’n’T boys, Thompson and Tuch, scored to secure the extra point of the Sabres.

Well-deserved in my book.

Puckpourri

In a sea change from our recent games, Buffalo controlled the play. The Sabres held the edge in shot attempts (56-48), shots on goal (33-26), scoring chances (24-22) and high-danger chances (12-6).

It’s hard to fault DeSmith (30 saves) on any of the Sabres’ goals. Thompson was unfettered on both of his tallies…Girgensons struck from point-blank range.

Sid and Geno paced the Pens’ attack with two points apiece (1+1). Rust had two assists. Letang snapped a three-game pointless drought with his goal.

Our fourth line of Blueger, Brian Boyle and Radim Zohorna had a rough night. They failed to register a single shot attempt while yielding nine. The Malkin line was, likewise, well under water possession-wise (38.46 Corsi).

Rickard Rakell skated primarily on the third line, but also joined the top unit for five minutes and change. He finished the night with two shots on goal and a game-high four hits.

The Pens (39-16-10, 88 points) maintained their hold on second place in the Metro, three points ahead of the Rangers and two behind Carolina. We travel to New York to take on the Rangers Friday night to begin a grinding stretch that includes eight of nine games against teams that presently hold a playoff spot.