Sabres Hope To Keep Rolling Against The Penguins

3/5/26 - 7:00pm at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA

Buffalo – 36-19-6 | - 78  points – 2nd place in the Atlantic Division

Pittsburgh  – 31-16-13 | - 75 points – 2nd place in the Metropolitan Division

Special Teams

Buffalo

Power Play – 19.9% (16th)

Penalty Kill – 82.9% (6th)

Pittsburgh

Power Play – 26.1% (3rd)

Penalty Kill - 84.6% (2nd)

Top Scorers

Buffalo

Tage Thompson: 61 GP, 33 G, 31 A, 64 PTS

Rasmus Dahlin: 57 GP, 12 G, 41 A, 53 PTS

Alex Tuch: 60 GP, 24 G, 28 A, 52 PTS

Pittsburgh

Sidney Crosby: 56 GP, 27 G, 32 A, 59 PTS

Evgeni Malkin: 45 GP, 13 G, 34 A, 47 PTS

Anthony Mantha: 60 GP, 21 G, 24 A, 45 PTS

Starting Goalies(projected)

Buffalo – Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (13-7-2, 2.62 GAA, .908 Sv %)

Pittsburgh – Stuart Skinner (19-13-6, 2.74 GAA, .892 Sv %)  

Other Sabres Stories

Six Former Sabres Who Signed Elsewhere

Sabres Line Combinations and Pairings (projected)

Forwards

Peyton Krebs  - Tage Thompson - Alex Tuch

Noah Ostlund - Josh Norris - Josh Doan

Jason Zucker - Ryan McLeod - Jack Quinn  

Josh Dunne - Tyson Kozak - Beck Malenstyn

Ex. Anton Wahlberg 

Defense

Mattias Samuelsson - Rasmus Dahlin

Bowen Byram - Owen Power

Zach Metsa -. Michael Kesselring

Ex. Jacob Bryson

Goaltenders

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Alex Lyon

Colten Ellis

Injuries

Justin Danforth (lower body, Oct. 18; injured reserve)

Jiri Kulich (blood clot, Nov. 4; injured reserve) 

Conor Timmins (broken leg, Dec. 20; injured reserve)

Zach Benson (upper-body, Feb 3, day-to-day)

Notes

The Sabres have earned at least one point in 11 of their last 13 contests (10-2-1), including wins in each of their last four games. A win tonight would give the Sabres their third winning streak of five or more games this season. 

It would mark the first time Buffalo has registered three or more winning streaks of at least five games since they recorded winning streaks of five (twice), six, seven and eight games in 2005-06. The Sabres would match the longest road point streak in franchise history (10 games) with a point tonight. Buffalo also tallied 10-game road point streaks from Dec. 10, 1983 to Jan. 23, 1984 and Oct. 4 to Nov. 13, 2006. 

Since Dec. 9 and entering play on Wednesday, the Sabres ranked first among all NHL teams in wins (25) and points (52). Buffalo’s 22 regulation wins in that span also led the league entering play on Wednesday. The next closest team, Colorado, had 19 regulation wins in that span. On March 3 vs. Vegas, Buffalo became the first Eastern Conference team to reach 30 regulation wins in 2025- 26. 

Buffalo has not lost consecutive games in regulation since the team fell in three straight from Dec. 3 at Philadelphia to Dec. 8 at Calgary. 

Alex Lyon is riding a nine-game road winning streak, the longest road winning streak by a Sabres goaltender in franchise history. With a win tonight, Lyon would move into a tie with Kevin Lankinen (2024-25), Evgeni Nabokov (2007-08) and Carey Price (2014-15) for the third-longest road winning streak in NHL history. Devan Dubnyk (2014-15) and Nabokov (2009-10) hold the NHL record for the longest road winning streak (11 games). Since Jan. 20, Lyon has made 242 saves on 259 shots (.934) in eight games played. 

Tage Thompson has recorded 43 points (21+22) in his last 36 games, including 33 points (15+18) in his last 26 games. Thompson is riding an eight-game point streak (5+3) and a point tonight would give him the longest point streak of his career. A point tonight would give Thompson the longest point streak by a Sabres skater since Jeff Skinner from Nov. 28 to Dec. 31, 2022 (10 games; 8+9). 

Rasmus Dahlin has recorded 24 points (8+16) in his last 18 games, including multi-point efforts in back-to-back games (1+4). If Dahlin records multiple points tonight, it would mark the fourth time he has done so in three consecutive games in his career. He would join Phil Housley (eight times) as the only Sabres defensemen to do so more than three times. 

Ryan McLeod has recorded 21 points (4+17) in his last 21 games, including 12 assists in his last 12 games. 

In his last six games, Peyton Krebs has collected seven points (3+4). 

Josh Norris has posted three points (2+1) in his last three games. 

Alex Tuch has recorded at least one point in three consecutive games and he has four points (2+2) in that span. 

Dating back to Jan. 19, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen has appeared in five games and he has made 125 saves on 134 shots (.933) in that span.

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