DeSmith, Pens shut out Sabres, 3-0

In Buffalo, it was another case of lack of offense for a paper tiger in the Sabres.

Casey DeSmith made 24 saves for the Pittsburgh Penguins in a 3-0 win on Saturday night.

Casey DeSmith got the shutout for the Pittsburgh Penguins

“It feels good,” DeSmith said. “Obviously the win is most important, but the shutout’s even better.”

You can rebuke all you want until you do something in Buffalo.

Jake Guentzel, Sidney Crosby and Mark Jankowski were the Penguins’ strikers.

“That’s what we’ve got to be. We’ve got to be able to play in this kind of game, these low-scoring games,” Guentzel said. “You’ve got to be able to stay patient, not be high-risk. It’s good to find different ways to win. It’s nice to know we can be low-scoring and defend hard. And obviously Casey played a great game tonight.”

Pittsburgh improved to 17-9-1.

“We’re definitely trending in the right direction,” the Penguins’ Brian Dumoulin said. “We’ve been playing good hockey and putting ourselves in good spots … As you can see, we’ve been in every game, and a couple of these have been some tight games going into the third period. I think we’ve been getting better in the third period, trying to attack them, play with the lead.”

Buffalo dropped to 6-16-4.

“I thought we lost our opportunity early in the second period,” Buffalo head coach Ralph Krueger said. “They seemed to fall back a little on their heels. That’s when we got the majority of our shots and were not able to feel and capture that moment. I’m pleased with the defensive effort, but offensively, and with the puck at times, we seemed to just be too complicated, and I’m not pleased with that part of our game. We need to be able to make plays. We’ve got a lot of guys who have a higher level offensively in them, and we’ve got to continue to push for that to show itself in the games.”Carter Hutton was the beneficiary of the lack of offensive support, he made 31 saves in the loss.

“It’s hard to describe right now, truthfully,” Hutton said. “I don’t know what’s going on. Obviously I’m accountable too. We’re in this as a team, right? It’s frustrating. I don’t know if I’ve ever been in this kind of funk at this level. It’s hard to take. I’m a pro, we’re going to come to work, but we just can’t seem to put it together. It’s really frustrating.”