Sabres vs. Penguins: While Buffalo fails to protect another lead, it continues to earn points
’Tis the season for hope for Sabres
Crosby nets winner in OT
There’s a couple of ways to look at the Buffalo Sabres as they head into their holiday break. On one hand, they’ve earned points in four out of five games, a nice stretch. On the other, they’ve blown third-period leads in two straight and lost both in overtime.
So, which is the better way to look at the Sabres? Well, it is Christmas. Let’s take the positive route.
Buffalo picked up another point Monday night in a 4-3 overtime loss to Pittsburgh. It wasn’t the best way for the 18,690 fans to file out of HSBC Arena, but at least their team looks nothing like the squad that dropped eight of 10, a slide that ended earlier this month.
“We can take a little bit of a break here, a little bit of a breather and readjust, feel good that we got ourselves out of a rut and we’ve been playing good hockey,” Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller said. “It hasn’t translated into wins, but I think you guys can all agree it’s been pretty damn good hockey.”
The Sabres are 2-1-2 in the past five games and 5-2-2 since Dec. 6, when their long skid finally ended.
“We’ve got to continue at that pace,” coach Lindy Ruff said. “You’ve still got to get four out of six, five out of six to keep moving up.”
They’ve also got to find a way to finish games. They allowed the Penguins to rally from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits before Sidney Crosby capped the comeback 43 seconds into the extra session.
“You don’t like to see yourself give up a 2-nothing lead, and then we gave up another lead,” Sabres center Adam Mair said. “We’ve just got to be better. We’ve got to find ways to win.
“I just think it shows a lack of focus and a lack of willingness to shut the other team out and really take control of the game. I think that’s the killer instinct we’ve been looking for, the killing instinct we need to find.”
The winning goal needed to be reviewed. Crosby, kept quiet for 60 minutes by Derek Roy, reached up to tip Evgeni Malkin’s shot past Miller. The goalie stayed in his crease until confirmation came from Toronto. It was close to being redirected with a high stick, but there didn’t appear to be enough evidence to overrule the goal call.
“From my gut feel, I thought it was a little high, but let’s hope they made the right call in Toronto,” Miller said.
The Sabres’ biggest problem this season has been lack of scoring depth. For most of the year, it was Thomas Vanek and . . . well, Thomas Vanek. They were most dangerous in recent years when they could roll three or four lines and got some of that back Monday.
The third line of Mair, Daniel Paille and Ales Kotalik scored the opening two goals, and hot second-liner Clarke MacArthur gave Buffalo a 3-2 lead heading into the third period.
It took just one minute for the Sabres to get the crowd out of its seat. Paille’s shot from the point hit the skate of a Pittsburgh defenseman in front to ricochet past goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
The Mair line worked in tandem early in the second period to stake the Sabres to a 2-0 lead. Mair won a scuffle for the puck along the boards near center ice and pushed it to Paille. He spotted Kotalik at the blue line, and the winger skated in alone to double the Sabres’ lead with 5:23 gone.
Kotalik’s goal was the start of four-goal, second-period spurt. Pascal Dupuis made it 2-1 just 55 seconds after Kotalik scored. The Penguins tied it six minutes later when Alex Goligoski’s shot from the blue line slipped under the left pad of goalie Ryan Miller.
MacArthur, though, made sure the Sabres entered the dressing room with the same one-goal edge with which they exited it. The winger was a healthy scratch against Dec. 13 against New Jersey. He has points in each of the four games since, including goals in the past three.
“The goal scoring is getting spread around, which is good,” Ruff said. “You need that. You need depth of scoring, and if you don’t get that you’ll struggle.”
Pittsburgh got the break it needed with 9:25 left when Paille was ridden into the boards by Goligoski and responded with a punch. Goligoski avenged the penalty, scoring on the power play with 8:43 to go to send the game to OT.
“We’re definitely coming along, but we need to do a lot more,” Paille said. “The key factor is just staying disciplined, whether it’s yapping at the ref or taking a bad penalty. I think that’s going to be a huge factor.”
