Red-hot Sabres cruise past Penguins, push winning streak at 5

PITTSBURGH -- Josh Norris and Owen Power each had a goal and an assist, and the Buffalo Sabres scored three goals in the second period en route to extending their winning streak to five games with a 5-1 victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday.

Tage Thompson had an assist to extend his career-high point streak to nine games (five goals, five assists), and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 27 saves for the Sabres (37-19-6), who have outscored their opponents 19-8 during the streak. 

“We got it going pretty good,” Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. “A lot of special teams, a lot of choppiness through the whole game. Back and forth with special teams was a big part of it.”

Bryan Rust scored the lone goal for the Penguins (31-17-13), who have lost two straight in regulation for the first time since Jan. 10-11 and three of their past four (1-2-1). Arturs Silovs made 21 saves. 

“I don’t want anybody walking out today saying this is OK,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “We also have to be quick to turn the page. So, you get home, get some sleep. We’ll get to the rink tomorrow, we’ve got to look at ways we need to be better.” 

The teams traded short-handed goals 2:48 apart in the first period. 

Ryan McLeod put Buffalo ahead 1-0 on a breakaway at 12:00 with his NHL-leading fifth short-handed goal of the season. He tipped an attempted pass from Ben Kindel off the boards past Kris Letang and went backhand through Silovs’ five-hole. 

Rust then tied it 1-1 during a Sabres power play at 14:48, driving to the net past Norris and going backhand to forehand around Luukkonen. 

Evgeni Malkin was ejected 38 seconds into the second period. He was assessed a game misconduct for a slash to the head of Buffalo defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. Malkin and Dahlin each received a minor for cross-checking, and Malkin got a major for slashing as well.

“It’s never ideal when your captain gets hit like that,” McLeod said. “I think we want to respond for him. I think we did a good job of that.”

Norris scored on the ensuing power play, giving Buffalo a 2-1 lead at 4:10 with a wrist shot just outside the crease on the rebound of a point shot from Bowen Byram that deflected off Josh Doan.

Pittsburgh challenged the play for goaltender interference, but it was upheld after a video review. 

“Probably need to do a little bit better of a job kind of managing our emotions in that situation,” Rust said. “But it's hard to dig out of." 

Alex Tuch made it 3-1 with a short-handed goal during a delayed penalty at 6:18, tipping a point shot from Power for his 25th of the season. 

Power extended the lead to 4-1 at 10:30 on a wrist shot from the left face-off circle that went in off Silovs’ blocker. 

“We got up there 4-1 and just didn’t want to let our foot off that gas,” Norris said. “We’re always looking to get better, no matter what the score is. Good on us to hold the lead and I thought we were a little leaky late in the second and [Luukkonen] made some big saves for us. Just regrouped in the intermission and really gave them nothing in the third.” 

Mattias Samuelsson scored an empty-net goal with a spinning shot from the other end at 16:53 of the third period for the 5-1 final. 

“We were sour for a bit,” Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson said. “We just couldn't hang in there after that and dug ourselves a little bit too deep of a hole to get back in the game. But it's a lot of games. We've played 61 games right now, and I think overall we haven't had many of these. So, we've just got to wash it over, look it over and move forward.” 

NOTES: The Sabres extended their road point streak 10 games (9-0-1), tying their franchise record from 1983-84 and 2006-07. They required their fewest games to 80 points in a season (62) since 2006-07 (57). ... Multiple players for Buffalo scored a short-handed goal for the first time since Tuch and Kyle Okposo on April 21, 2022. ... Thompson is the third Sabres player in the past 15 years to have a point streak of at least nine games, joining Jack Eichel (17 games and nine games in 2019-20; 11 games in 2016-17) and Sam Reinhart (11 games in 2018-19).