Penguins Allow Three Unanswered Goals in Third Period in Loss to Sabres
The Pittsburgh Penguins couldn't hold their two-goal lead in the final frame against the Buffalo Sabres.
The Pittsburgh Penguins kicked off their next set of back-to-back games by traveling to Buffalo to take on the Sabres in a Black Friday contest.
Following a tough 1-0 loss, the Penguins are still looking to find wins at a more consistent pace and the Sabres provide a good chance at progress.
With Alex Nedeljkovic getting his second start since returning from injury, he looked to backstop an injury riddled lineup to a win.
For the second straight game, the Penguins were going to be without Bryan Rust who is dealing with a lower-body injury.
First Period
There was a long feeling out process between the two teams to start the game and the goalies were keeping everything they faced out of their nets.
The ice was finally broken by the Penguins when Jake Guentzel forced a steal in the Sabres’ zone and found Sidney Crosby who rocketed home a one-time shot.
Crosby’s goal came from well above the face off dots, and wasn’t necessarily a difficult shot, but Sabres’ Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen just couldn’t make the save.
The Penguins enjoyed a solid period and held down the fort to take the 1-0 lead into the first intermission.
Second Period
Again, after a majority of the period, both teams struggled to find the back of the net; the new look Penguins power play even fell flat on their first opportunity of the contest.
Not long after that man advantage, however, the Penguins depth came up and took advantage of a whiffed pass.
Rasmus Dahlin failed to move a pass through Matt Nieto who stole puck and found Lars Eller sitting wide open in front of the cage.
Eller didn’t miss his opportunity and gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead to carry into the second intermission.
Third Period
The Penguins entered the final fram with a two-goal lead, but needed to find some extra space between them and the Sabres.
With Evgeni Malkin in the penalty box, the Sabres climbed within a goal thanks to a man advantage tally early in the final frame.
Sabres captain Kyle Okposo knotted the score off of an unfortunate bounce from the stick of Erik Karlsson behind Nedeljkovic.
The Penguins didn’t carry much of the same momentum in the final period that they had through the first 40 minutes, and it showed on the score sheet.
The Sabres capitalized on another chance in front of Nedeljkoivc and secured their first lead in the game extremely late.
Despite entering the period up 2-0, the Penguins allowed three straight and the Sabres held a 3-2 lead in the final three minutes of the contest.
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