"We've Got to Be Better at Pushing Back": Sabres Rally in the Third to Hand Penguins a 3-2 Loss

The Penguins entered the third period of their Black Friday showdown with Buffalo up 2-0. They ended the game with a 3-2 loss.

The Sabres scored three unanswered tallies in the final frame to give Pittsburgh their fourth loss in the past five games, starting with a power-play goal on a hooking call to Evgeni Malkin that the Penguins didn’t like.

“That got them some juice,” Head Coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’ve got to be better at pushing back.”

“We didn’t find a way to stick with it. We got a little bit frustrated, I think, and just mismanaged our decisions out there at the wrong time,” defenseman Erik Karlsson said. “We’re still up 2-1 in the game. We shouldn’t really feel any other feelings than we did going into the third, which was feeling pretty good about ourselves. So, it deflated us a bit, which it’s on us not to let that happen.”

The Sabres evened the score on a tough bounce, with the puck deflecting off of Karlsson’s stick and in. The Penguins had a chance to get back in front on their second power play of the night, but couldn’t convert. After a missed opportunity from the Malkin line, Alex Tuch got the game-winner for Buffalo with less than three minutes remaining.

“I think they honestly just got a couple good bounces,” goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic said. “The second one went off our own stick. The third one stemmed from them just throwing a puck from the corner, it hit the post and kind of managed to just settle behind the net for them, then they chucked it back out in front again.

“They were just getting pucks to the net. Sometimes that’s how it goes. I think we played well enough. We were there, maybe just didn’t get a stick on it enough or just didn’t get the best bounce.”

Nedeljkovic made 30 saves, while Sidney Crosby and Lars Eller scored for Pittsburgh. The Penguins captain got his 13^th goal of the season – in just the 20^th game of the year – late in the first period on a terrific setup from Jake Guentzel after a takeaway along the boards.

He’s been tremendous at 5-on-5 play, but as a team, the Penguins have struggled on the power play. That led to the coaching staff deploying the Two-Headed Monster on different units for this game, as “we’re trying to find ways to bring some solutions to the table… sometimes, just a little bit of change can free up the mindset a little bit, give our guys an opportunity to simplify the game,” Sullivan said.

The first five over the boards were Karlsson, Crosby, Guentzel, Radim Zohorna, and Vinnie Hinostroza. The other unit was Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin, Reilly Smith, Jeff Carter, and Alex Nylander. The tweaks didn’t have the effect the coaching staff was hoping for. “They were okay,” Sullivan said.

But right after the Sabres went back to full strength following their first kill of the night in the second period, Matt Nieto took possession after a turnover from Rasmus Dahlin, finding Eller in front. He had plenty of time and space to snipe a shot into the top far corner, giving Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead – which evaporated in that final frame.

"I think we probably should’ve been a bit better at possessing the puck,” Crosby said of the team’s play in the third. “We didn’t get a lot of zone time and allowed them to come back at us. Even with that, we had our looks to extend the lead, and didn't do that."

This was the first game of a back-to-back set for Pittsburgh. They host the Toronto Maple Leafs at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday night.