In Buffalo, the Sabres tied their match with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night near the midway point of the middle frame.
And that was about it.
“Guys are trying but obviously it’s not good enough,” Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger said. “We’re measured by results and we’ve got to go back at it tomorrow and nobody’s going to feel sorry for us in this situation. We’ve just got to fight our way out of it. Nothing’s coming easy, that’s for sure.”
The Pens reeled off three unanswered goals in a 5-2 win over their hosts.
“Obviously it’s a humbling honor,” Pens head coach Mike Sullivan said of his 300th NHL win. “The players gave me a nice tribute after the game. I’m just grateful to the players I’ve had the privilege to coach over the years, especially the guys here in Pittsburgh. We’ve been together here for quite some time now. … Certainly I’m the benefactor of having coached some really good players.”
Tristan Jarry made 21 saves to get the win, it was the Sabres’ ninth straight set back.
Tage Thompson and Victor Olofsson were the Sabres’ strikers.
“It’s always nice to put one in the net,” Thompson said. “Obviously, I haven’t played hockey in a while, coming off the shoulder injury and then being in and out of the lineup, so it’s nice to get the monkey off your back and get a little bit of confidence. But at the same time, we need to start winning games. That’ll feel a lot better.”
Evgeni Malkin opened the scoring for the game and the Pens with a goal in the first period and a 1-0 lead.
“You try to score every game,” Malkin said. You just try like [heck] for the team to win. I think about every game and try to play my best.”
Brandon Tanevgave the Pens a2-1 lead, and Jake Guentzel snapped the 2-2 tie to get the Pens going on offense and put distance between themselves and Buffalo.
Anthony Angello pushed the lead to 4-2 for the Pens.
“It was awesome,” Angello said. “Obviously, playing in Buffalo was a little bit surreal, especially because this is close to home, to where I grew up, and these are the NHL games I came to. So finally playing in the building was awesome, and then scoring, honestly, I’d say was even more surreal, if that’s even possible.”
Bryan Rust added an empty-net goal to ice the Sabres out.
Jonas Johansson made 22 saves in the loss.
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