In Buffalo, the Sabres scored three unanswered goals in the third period to erase a 2-0 deficit to the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins in a 3-2 win on Friday. 
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 31 saves in the victory.
The Sabres moved to 9-9-2.
Alex Tuch scored the third of the three goals with 2:44 left on the game clock.
Jeff Skinner had the primary assist on the winner.
“He was good, oh my gosh,” Tuch said of Skinner. “I saw it happening and he loves that play. … I whiffed completely on that shot and it still went in because he had everyone looking, he even had the goalie looking at him behind the net. It was an unbelievable play by him, just so hard-working. I think he slipped a check, he hit a guy, took the puck and found me in the slot.”
The Penguins took the 2-0 lead on goals from Sidney Crosby at 16:46 in the opening stanza, and Lars Eller at 16:44 in the middle frame.
“I think we probably should have been a bit better at possessing the puck [in the third period],” Crosby said. “I thought we didn’t get a lot of zone time and allowed them to come back at us. Even with that, we had our looks to extend the lead and didn’t do that.”
The Penguins dropped to 9-10-0.
“There’s no excuse that we let in one on the [penalty kill], which has been really good for us,” the Pens Erik Karlsson said. “That’s something that obviously we have to be conscious of moving forward here. We’re still up 2-1 in the game. We shouldn’t really feel any other feelings than we did going into the third, which was feeling pretty good about ourselves. It deflated us a bit, which it’s on us not to let that happen.”
Skinner started the third period rally at 5:13 off the power play to trim the deficit to 2-1.
“We just wanted to play our game,” Buffalo’s Kyle Okposo said. “I talked about it before, we just haven’t played our game. It’s just pressure, pressure, pressure, go, go, go. A lot of times when we do that, we stop thinking and a lot of goals end up on the highlight film. That’s what we had for a long time, but we haven’t really had that this year. I thought that we just did a really good job of pressuring the puck and taking away their time and space and just attacking. Everybody wanted to attack, and that was our mantra going into the third, and we did that.”
Okposo tied the game, 2-2, at 10:52.
“[Okposo] said some things [during the second intermission] that I think everyone wanted to run through a brick wall after he spoke,” Tuch said. “He’s the type of guy that, it doesn’t matter what he says, everyone in here is going to listen. He leads by example, has a big goal for us. It doesn’t matter whether he scored that goal or not, he was doing all the little things and he was working his [behind] off out there and that’s what he’s been doing.
“Obviously it’s tough when you’re going through a goal drought like he has this season, but it just shows how resilient he is and our group is and, like I said, he leads by example and he’s the ultimate leader, ultimate teammate. It was really good to see him get one.”
Alex Nedeljkovic made 31 saves in the loss.
“There’s no excuse that we let in one on the [penalty kill], which has been really good for us,” Karlsson said. “That’s something that obviously we have to be conscious of moving forward here. We’re still up 2-1 in the game. We shouldn’t really feel any other feelings than we did going into the third, which was feeling pretty good about ourselves. It deflated us a bit, which it’s on us not to let that happen.”
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