Pens double up Sabres

In Buffalo, the annual swoon is nearly complete. On Thursday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins doubled up the Sabres, 4-2.

The Sabres have lost five straight and been outscored 19-9 over those games.

Patric Hornqvist struck twice for the Pens.

Patric Hornqvist had two goals for the Penguins – file photo by Lewis Bleiman

“I think our response in the third period was huge for us,” Hornqvist said. “We didn’t have a great second, but we came back in the third and played a really hard, solid team effort. That’s what it’s going to come down to here in the stretch, to work for each other. We can have some bad shifts once in a while, but if we stay with our process and trust each other, we’ll be fine.”

Matt Murray made 28 saves to get the win.

Jake McCabe and Marcus Johansson scored, and

“We definitely created enough chances to score goals, and I think for a lot of that game we were the better team,” Johansson said. “Second period, we played really well and we pressured them and pushed them back, but we come out empty-handed out of that period and it’s frustrating when it’s like that. But you know, winning hockey games, you’ve got to score more goals than the other team, and we didn’t do that.”

Well, he has to say that.

Marcus Pettersson also scored for the Pens.

“Our guys really root for him,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “He’s such an emotional leader on our team. I’ve never been around a guy who has as much energy as [Hornqvist] does. He’s always vocal on the bench, he’s vocal in between periods. He’s just a great teammate.”

Sidney Crosby added a goal to put the final distance between the two teams.

[WATCH: All Penguins vs. Sabres highlights]

Jonas Johansson made 28 saves in another unsupported loss for the Sabres.

“We had eight, nine top scoring chances in the second period, but we don’t bury any and so when you’re not getting rewarded for that, it’s tough to sustain that,” Sabres head coach Ralph Krueger said. “We let up a touch in the third and we just never got that exact drive back. But again, there’s signs there of the game we need to play and the game we need to work to carry out for 60 minutes.”