by BUFFALO — The Buffalo Sabers scored five goals in the third period to hand the Pittsburgh Penguins their sixth straight loss Wednesday, 6-3 at the KeyBank Center.
Buffalo was 2-1 down and entered the third in front Days Thompson, Victor Olofsson and Alex cloth each scored in a time span of 7:13.
Olofsson scored twice, Thompson had a goal and an assist, and Owen power, Rasmus Dahlin and Jeff Skinner each had two assists for the Sabers (7-3-0), who have won three in a row. Eric Comrie Made 18 saves.
“We know they have a lot of good players,” said Tuch. “…We didn’t come down, we didn’t collapse, and we went out and tried to respond immediately. We were able to pull off a great comeback win there and it showed a lot of guts in that space.
“Honestly, it cost us all. We all pushed down and it started with ‘coms’ on the net and went from there. So a lot of guys got promoted in that third period and we responded well.”
Video: [email protected]: Olofsson scores in the 3rd period
Yevgeny Malkin had two templates, and Casey DeSmith made 27 saves for the Penguins (4-5-2), who are 0-5-1 during the sling and have had a multi-goal lead in game three in each of the last two games, including a 6-5 loss in the Extension Boston Bruins on Tuesday.
“You have to build [confidence]’, Captain of Pittsburgh Sydney Crosby said. “There is no secret. In a situation like this, it is important to find your way and be determined. It’s work and finding a way out of it. We can’t sit around and feel sorry for ourselves.”
Jason Sugar gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead in a 2-on-1 at 6:28 of the first period after taking a pass from Malkin in the right faceoff circle.
Josh Archibald scored for the second game in a row when he buried a feed of Ryan Pohling at the side of the net with another 2v1 to make it 2-0 at 5:50 of the second period.
JJ Peterka cut it to 2-1 at 18:51 after taking a pass from Power on the half wall and running to the top of the right circle.
Jake Guentzel restored the two-goal lead on a power play eight seconds after the third Kris Letang sent him off the Penguins blue line to the 3-1 breakaway with a stretch pass.
“In that first part of the game, I thought we did a pretty good job just building offense out of defense,” said Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan. “We’ve had a series of 2-on-1s, odd-man rushes just because we defended hard and made good decisions, won the wall fights, got pucks behind their defenders and competed in foot races. And then I thought about the third period or the second part of the game, we just weren’t that good at breaking the pressure on the walls, spotting danger and making easy plays.”
Video: [email protected]: Guentzel scores PPG in the 3rd period
Thompson cut 3:21 to 3:2 with a one-timer from the left circle on the power play. Olofsson went uncovered and connected it at 6:29 to go 3-3 from the right circle after a fake pass from Power that froze DeSmith.
“Like everyone else, at first I thought he was going to shoot it,” said Olofsson. “But I was ready for it. It was a beautiful false pass and a false shot and an incredible pass.”
Tuch drove to the net and redirected a pass from Thompson to lead Buffalo 4-3 to 10:34.
“Giving up the goal immediately to lose two goals, we haven’t had a good night up to that point and then we reacted,” said Sabers coach Don Granato. “So it’s a testament to the will and determination of the group. But I think they know and we know their identity, and we knew we weren’t playing with it up to that point. I think the collective feeling goes into the third (was), ‘We’re going to get there and we’re going to turn it up.'”
Kyle Okposo (18:24) and Olofsson (19:53) each scored an empty goal to make it 6:3.
“[The mood in the room is] what you’d expect from a team that’s lost a couple of leads on consecutive nights and been winless on six,” Crosby said. “I mean, it’s not a great feeling and we have to find a way to get it out.”
Video: [email protected]: Tuch puts Sabers ahead in the 3rd period
REMARKS: Crosby, Guentzel and more Bryan Rost were each minus-4. … Letang had an assist but was minus 3 in 23:24 of Ice Age after missing Tuesday’s game through illness. … DeSmith played his 100th NHL game. … Pittsburgh played without a striker Jeff Carter, who struggles with a lower body injury every day. … Thompson is the first Sabers skater since Maxim Afinogenov in 2006-07 and 10th in their history with 10 or more points in three games. Only Pat LaFontaine had more points than Thompson’s 11 (six goals, five assists) in three games (13 from October 23–30, 1992). … Power was plus-3 and had four shots on goal in 23:51, and Dahlin had five shots on goal and four blocks in a game high of 29:25.
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