At The Final Horn: Penguins 5 - Sabres 2

The Buffalo Sabres will see the Pittsburgh Penguins four times in the month of March and the Penguins came away with a win the first game of the season series by a 5-2 score Thursday night at KeyBank Center.
Tage Thompson and Victor Olofsson scored for Buffalo.
Thompson scored his first goal since January 29, 2019 - a span of 33 NHL games for him. The length between goals was amplified by a season-ending shoulder injury during his first game with the Sabres last season on November 17, 2019.
Sabres goaltender Jonas Johansson made 22 saves in goal.
Evgeni Malkin, Brandon Tanev, Jake Guentzel, Anthony Angello and Bryan Rust were the Penguins' goal scorers.
Malkin, with a goal and an assist Thursday, has points in 13-consecutive games against Buffalo (7+13), and has 57 points (19+38) in 43 career games overall.
Tristan Jarry stopped 21 shots for Pittsburgh.
The Sabres were down two centers as captain Jack Eichel did not play due to an upper-body injury and then rookie Dylan Cozens left the game early in the third period after being hit into the boards by Zach Aston-Reese.
The Sabres are 0-7-2 in their last nine games and since returning from a two-week COVID-related hiatus on February 15, the team is 2-11-2. Buffalo has allowed five goals in each of the past five games.

What happened

The Penguins opened the scoring 6:27 into the game when Kasperi Kapanen intercepted a pass in the neutral zone just outside the Sabres blue line and then proceeded on what was essentially a 2-on-0 with Malkin. Kapanen skated in and then sent the pass over to Malkin for a tap in .
Buffalo responded 27 seconds later when Thompson converted on a wraparound attempt.
Pittsburgh scored the first goal of the second period when Tanev skated in alone at the 3:24 mark and put a backhand past Johansson.
Olofsson tied things up again with his eighth of the year when, open in front, he capitalized on a pass from Riley Sheahan 8:46 into the second period.
On the power play, Pittsburgh took the lead when Guentzel accepted a Sidney pass from behind the net and popped one in for his ninth goal of the season with 8:24 remaining in the second.
The Penguins made it 4-2 when Angello roofed one over Johansson's glove 2:43 into the third period.
Rust scored on an empty net with 1:15 left, chasing down a puck in the Sabres zone that was fired down the ice by Jarry, who was looking for a goal of his own.

Roll the highlight film

Here's Thompson's first of the season:

Worth mentioning

As mentioned above, Cozens left the game 2:27 into the third period when he was drilled into the boards in front of the penalty boxes by Aston-Reese. As Cozens was helped across the ice to the Sabres dressing room, Colin Miller stepped in to fight Aston-Reese.
The Penguins scored their fourth goal just 16 seconds later.
Cozens was filling in on a line with Sam Reinhart and Taylor Hall for Eichel, who missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. Sabres coach Ralph Krueger said before the game that Eichel went out of state for a "deeper assessment" of the injury.
Also of note…
Johansson has now started the last three games for the Sabres and five of the last seven. He's now 0-4-1 on the season.
Thompson suited up for the first time since February 25. He replaced Tobias Rieder in the lineup. Thompson now and one goal and one assist in 10 games this season.
Sheahan recorded his 100th career assist on Olofsson's second-period goal.
Tonight's game opens up a three-game homestand for Buffalo.

Coming up

The Sabres and Penguins will complete their two-game series on Saturday at KeyBank Center. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550 with pregame coverage on MSG starting at 6:30.