BUFFALO, N.Y. -- After reaching a low point of the season with a six-game losing streak, the Penguins now appear to be trending in the right direction again.
Two days after snapping their losing streak with a 7-3 win over the Senators, the Penguins won their second game in a row with a 4-2 win over the Sabres here at the KeyBank Center.
In each of the Penguins' six losses in that streak, they allowed the first goal of the game. They opened the scoring in Tuesday's game that snapped the losing streak, and they again opened the scoring Thursday when, at 7:56 of the first period, Nick Bjugstad fell into Sabres goaltender Jonas Johansson and Patric Hornqvist capitalized while Johansson was down:
That’s as Hornqvist-like of a goal as you're going to see.
The play was challenged for goaltender interference, but since Bjugstad was pushed into Johansson by a Sabres player, there was no interference on the play and the goal counted.
In Mike Sullivan's eyes, there was a good chance the goal would count:
"We didn't think so," Sullivan told me. "When a team challenges you never know how the league is going to view it. But it appeared to us on the bench that our guy got tripped. There's always that concern, I guess."
Hornqvist, who has had his share of overturned goals in his career given the way he plays in front of the net, wasn't so confident.
"You never know," Hornqvist smiled. "Who knows. If they review that 10 times, who knows what's going to happen."
Because the Sabres incorrectly challenged a call, they were hit with a delay of game penalty for wasting everybody's time, and the Penguins earned a power play.
Now, it's worth noting that in Wednesday's practice in Cranberry, nearly all of the special teams work focused on entering the offensive zone. They repeated a zone entry drill over, and over, and over. And it's also worth noting that during the morning locker room availability, when former Sabre Evan Rodrigues was asked what made the Sabres so successful in the previous meetings between these two teams, Rodrigues pointed to neutral zone turnovers as something the Penguins need to be especially conscious of in this game.
“I think just knowing that room, they’re going to come hard in their transition game,” Rodrigues said Thursday morning. “They clog up the neutral zone really well. Just avoiding those neutral zone turnovers and getting pucks deep and just playing them in their defensive zone. If you turn pucks over in the neutral zone, they counter so quickly. That’s the bread and butter of their game.”
And yet, with that awareness and after all of that work in practice, Bryan Rust had an awful turnover in the neutral zone on an attempted offensive zone entry, and as Rodrigues expected, the Sabres quickly countered:
Bread and butter.
Given the Penguins' power play struggles as of late, maybe incorrectly challenging a call to force the Penguins to go on the power play was just good strategy from Ralph Krueger.
Just over three minutes later, Marcus Pettersson scored his second goal of a season with a shot from the left point:
When asked about the big games from both Swedish players, Hornqvist said he and Pettersson had a "big dinner last night."
The Penguins finished the first period outshooting the Sabres, 16-9.
The Sabres came out much harder in the second period, at one point outshooting the Penguins 9-0. The Penguins didn't get their first shot of the middle frame until the 13:32 mark on a power play, and it went in:
It was Hornqvist's second of the game.
"It's great," Sullivan said of Hornqvist's impact. "Our guys really root for him, he's such an emotional leader on our team. I've never been around a guy that has as much energy as Hornqvist. He's always vocal on the bench. He's vocal in-between periods, he's a great teammate. When he scores a couple goals the way he does, they're always second-effort goals. They're never easy ones, tap-ins. That's just the nature of his game."
Buffalo forward Marcus Johansson cut the Penguins' lead to one goal at 1:57 of the third period, and longtime Penguins forward Dominik Kahun picked up the primary assist. Four minutes later, Sidney Crosby answered to regain the two-goal lead:
That's just peak-Crosby with that backhand. He shoots better on his backhand than some guys do on their forehand.
"Sid has an amazing backhand," Sullivan said. "He distributes the puck with his backhand and he can really shoot it. Backhand shots are hard for goaltenders because it's hard for them to pick up where it's going. The release, it's hard to pick up the release. There aren't a lot of guys who can play on their backhand the way Sid does in today's game. That's a throwback skill."
It was Crosby's 318th career even strength goal, bringing him within two goals of Jaromir Jagr (320) for second all-time on the Penguins' all-time even strength goal-scoring list.
The Sabres aren't exactly a contender in the league, but it was still a good showing given the way the Penguins played in the losing streak. They'll have to keep trending in this direction as the tight playoff push in the Metro Division enters its final weeks.
"If you're going to win the Cup, it's four lines, six D, and a couple of good goalies as well," Bjugstad said. "You need as many contributions as you can get. "We had a decent amount of guys injured, and this team has found a way with younger guys, call ups. It's reassuring. But we can't let our foot off the pedal here, these games are important going forward. I think you want to be confident going into the playoffs."
• Bjugstad's game was his first game back since undergoing core muscle surgery in November.
"I was a little nervous going into it," Bjugstad laughed after the game. "It had been so long. I just wanted to go out and get my feet under me. That's a fast team over there. We had our ups and downs, I thought I could be better defensively, so we'll brush up on that."
Bjugstad said he felt good physically, and it's just a matter of readjusting to the pace of play.
"I thought he had a good game," Sullivan said. "It's not an easy adjustment when you've missed that much time to step into an NHL game this time of year with the intensity that's out there. I thought he did a real good job."
• Brandon Tanev also played after missing the last game with an illness.
• Matt Murray had a pretty good game with 28 saves on 30 shots.
"I thought he was real good," Sullivan said. "Especially in the second and third, he made some big saves for us down the stretch. In the second period, where I didn't think we were at our best, I thought he was really good."
Sullivan wouldn't say if Murray's performance earned him a start on Saturday, saying, "We'll make a decision as we always do."
• Just as was the case in practice on Wednesday, Justin Schultz replaced Kris Letang on the top power play.
• The Penguins are now 24-3-3 when scoring the first goal of the game.
• The ratio of Penguins fans to Sabres fans had to be near 50-50, if not tilted slightly in the Penguins favor. When Pettersson scored, the place erupted like it was a home game. Fitting that the Penguins were wearing their home jerseys.
• Former Penguins goalie coach Mike Bales and Jim Rutherford were catching up after the game.
• Bob Errey and Rob Ray seemed to be chirping each other while sharing the spot between the benches. No gloves were dropped.
• The hit of the game (language warning on the video):
The GREATEST HOCKEY HIT EVER (by a ghost) @NHL @penguins @BuffaloSabres #NHL pic.twitter.com/6Up8Wzyoti
— Steve Byrne (@stevebyrnelive) March 6, 2020
• Elsewhere in the Metro, the Capitals picked up a point in their 6-5 overtime loss to the Rangers. Penguins fans can thank Mika Zibanejad for keeping the Capitals from getting the second point, as he scored FIVE goals, including the overtime winner. The Flyers beat the Hurricanes, 4-1. Both the Flyers and Capitals now have 87 points, and the Penguins have 84. Saturday's game against the Capitals is a big one.
• The press box food at the KeyBank Center is unmatched. Sushi, a donut station, little mini cheesecakes, it's wild.
• The Sabres, celebrating their 50th anniversary this season, had a series of decade-themed promotional nights -- 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and 10s. You don't really see those last two decades used in promotional nights around the league. The 00s night was held recently, and the Sabres replayed the hype video for that night during the game, with highlights from throughout the 00s.
I'd love to see the Penguins do an 00s night, but go all-in with the full decade. Not just the good years at the end. Mix in Rico Fata and Dick Tarnstrom highlights. I dug up this in-game intro from the 2003-04 season and it's just incredible. Experience the evolution:
https://t.co/k2PFaexOC1 pic.twitter.com/1JMLVmKTU7
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) March 6, 2020
I tweeted that at the start of the second period and things looked be turning in the Sabres favor for the next 10 minutes or so, so I surely unearthed some sort of X Generation curse with that video.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE INJURIES
• Jake Guentzel last played on Dec. 30 and underwent shoulder surgery the following day. He's no longer wearing a sling.
• Zach Aston-Reese left the Penguins' game on Feb. 16 early and is considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury. He has resumed skating on his own.
• Anthony Angello sustained an upper-body injury on March 3 and is considered week-to-week. It's not clear how he sustained the injury, since he finished that game.
• Dominik Simon last played on March 1 and is week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jason Zucker -- Sidney Crosby -- Conor Sheary
Patrick Marleau -- Evgeni Malkin -- Bryan Rust
Jared McCann -- Nick Bjugstad -- Patric Hornqvist
Brandon Tanev -- Teddy Blueger -- Evan Rodrigues
Brian Dumoulin -- Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson -- John Marino
Jack Johnson -- Justin Schultz
And for Krueger's Sabres:
Victor Ologsson -- Jack Eichel -- Sam Reinhart
Jimmy Vesey -- Marcus Johansson -- Dominik Kahun
Jeff Skinner - Curtiz Lazar -- Wayne Simmonds
Zemgus Girgensons -- Johan Larsson - Kyle Okposo
Lawrence Pilut -- Rasmus Ristolainen
Jake McCabe -- Henri Jokiharju
Rasmus Dahlin -- Brandon Montour
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will return to Pittsburgh tonight and practice in Cranberry at noon on Friday. They'll play the Capitals at 1 p.m. on Saturday, and Hurricanes at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our team page for everything.
PHOTO GALLERY
Penguins vs. Sabres, March 5, 2020, Buffalo, N.Y. - GETTY