Sabres stunned in OT as Pens' Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby forge NHL history
The Sabres (1-3-1) were foiled in their bid for their first three-game winning streak over the Penguins since they won five straight from Oct. 10, 2005, to Nov. 17, 2006, a stretch that encompassed Sidney Crosby's rookie season.
A wacky Wednesday for the Buffalo Sabres followed this script: There was exhilaration followed by frustration and, ultimately, complete exasperation.
The Sabres fell to 1-3-1 with their 6-5 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in PPG Paints Arena. Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby's first goal of the season, a power-play tally at 1:38 of overtime, put the capper on an historic night for the Penguins that saw Evgeni Malkin score his 500th career goal early in the third period.
The Sabres had a late 5-4 lead but couldn't hold on as a Malkin shot leaked through Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Rickard Rakell dumped it into an empty net with 46 seconds to forge OT with the score tied at 5-5.
Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby (87) celebrates his game-winning goal in overtime with Evgeni Malkin (71) and Erik Karlsson (65) after the Penguins' 6-5 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 16, 2024.
(AP Photo/Gene Puskar)
Crosby won it with Tage Thompson in the penalty box for tripping Malkin in the Buffalo zone. Erik Karlsson fed Crosby with a diagonal pass and the captain tapped it home to the left of the crease.
"It's a call we probably would have liked to have back," Thompson said. "I'm just going to try to hit him, and he tries to jump out of the way and I feel like that play happens at least once a shift. But it is what it is. There's a lot of other things we could have done throughout the game though, to prevent it even going into overtime."
The Sabres (1-3-1) were foiled in their bid for their first three-game winning streak over the Penguins since they won five straight from Oct. 10, 2005, to Nov. 17, 2006, a stretch that encompassed Crosby's rookie season.
It was a night for the history books as Malkin scored No. 500 from the seat of his pants at 3:26 of the third period to put the Penguins in front, 4-3, and Crosby became the 10th player in NHL history to reach 1,600 career points on a first-period assist. Crosby, whose goal was his first of the season, had a goal and two assists in the game.
Malkin had a goal and three assists, earning secondary help on the game-winner, and the entire Pittsburgh team cleared the bench to congratulate him after his milestone goal.
"Pretty impressive," said Sabres winger JJ Peterka, who scored his first two goals of the season. "I think we've all watched them like for decades, lighting up the league. And I think just to see them, even in an older age here, they still have it. They are still heck of (great) players, and it's always fun to watch."
Sabres coach Lindy Ruff didn't have as much fun watching this one. His team gifted the Penguins far too many scoring chances, and turnovers by Dylan Cozens and Jack Quinn directly led to second-period goals that allowed Pittsburgh to wipe out a 3-1 lead the Sabres had forged after 20 minutes.
"I thought our puck management in the second period was terrible," Ruff said. "We played too much 1-on-1 hockey, and every time you turn it over around the top of the (faceoff) circle, you're basically breaking them out. We did that probably four or five times in the second period. That really hurt us."
"We've got to manage the puck better, be a little smarter, be a little more aware what's what's going on behind us," added Thompson. "With that being said, I loved our our our compete and our determination to claw our way back into the game and find ourselves another lead in the third."
Peterka, back after missing two games and most of a third due to a concussion, had two goals for the Sabres. His second, a bad angle shot at 10:16 of the third period, got Buffalo even at 4-4 and the Sabres then took a 5-4 lead on Ryan McLeod's wrist shot at 10:56 but were unable to hold the lead.
Some other takeaways on a goofy night:
1. Special teams blowout
The Sabres outscored the Penguins, 5-3, when the teams were playing 5 on 5. The special teams tally was 3-0 in Pittsburgh's favor. The Pens were 2 for 5 on the power play, including Crosby's winner and got a short-handed goal from Drew O'Connor, while Buffalo was 0 for 1 with the man-advantage to fall to an NHL-worst 0 for 15 on the season.The O'Connor goal was challenged for offsides and it looked like the Sabres had a point as Noel Acciari was a shade into the zone, but the NHL ruled the evidence inconclusive and the goal stood.
"You trust your (video) personnel. It's a hard one," Ruff said. "I haven't looked at it since I looked at it behind the bench. You focus on the rest of the game. You don't need to spend a lot of time on it. We thought it was a call that could go our way."
2. Goaltending
The Penguins rallied thanks to the work of 22-year-old backup goalie Joel Blomqvist, who was playing just his third NHL game. He stymied the Sabres by stopping four shots in the first period and all 11 he faced in the second. Overall, he made 26 saves on 28 shots. Starter Tristan Jarry was booed off the ice after giving up three goals on five shots.The Sabres had numerous odd-man rushes that Blomqvist stopped, and he frustrated Peterka and Zach Benson on second-period breakaways.
Luukkonen made 36 saves and didn't give up any grievous goals, but wasn't all that sharp at times either. And the tying goal got through him at a time a puck can't. He's got a 3.69 goals-against average and .874 save percentage, figures he obviously has to improve.
3. Peterka power
Peterka missed most of the last three games with a concussion suffered in Prague but was flying in this one with his first two goals of the season."I thought JJ was was awesome," Ruff said. "Scored two goals, he had two breakaways, he he hit the post on one breakaway. He was dynamic all night for me."
"It stinks watching games from the press box," said Peterka, a 28-goal scorer last year. "You like watching but you can't do anything out there, so I was super excited to get back in the lineup."
Buffalo Sabres' JJ Peterka (77) returns to the bench after scoring his first goal of the season during the first period against the Pittsburgh Penguins in PPG Paints Arena on Oct. 16, 2024.
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
4. Lineup news
The Sabres scratched Jiri Kulich, and the tandem of Cozens and Quinn struggled badly without him. Neither has a goal and turnovers continue to dog Cozens."We started the game winning a lot of battles, and then I thought they took over by winning more battles than we did. And you know, the 50-50, battles, the down low battles, combined with some bad puck management I thought really fueled their team."
