BUFFALO — The Buffalo Sabers scored five goals in the third period and handed the Pittsburgh Penguins their sixth straight loss, 6-3 at KeyBank Center on Wednesday.
Buffalo trailed 2-1 entering the third Tage Thompson, Victor Olofsson and Alex Tuch each scored in a span of 7:13.
Olofsson scored twice, Thompson had a goal and an assist, and Owen Power, Rasmus Dahlin and Jeff Skinner each had two assists for the Sabers (7-3-0), who have won three in a row. Eric Comrie made 18 saves.
“We know they’ve got a lot of skilled players,” Tuch said. “… We didn’t get down on ourselves, we didn’t slump down and we went out there and tried to respond right away. We were able to have a great come-from-behind-win there, and it showed a lot of guts in this room.
“It took all of us, honestly. We all bore down and it started with ‘Coms’ in the net and went out from there. So, a lot of guys stepped up in that third period and we responded well.”
Video: PIT@BUF: Olofsson scores in 3rd period
Evgeni Malkin had two assists, and Casey DeSmith made 27 saves for the Penguins (4-5-2), who are 0-5-1 during the skid and have held a multigoal lead in the third in each of the past two games, including a 6-5 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.
“You’ve got to build [confidence],” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said. “There’s no secret. In a situation like this, it just comes down to finding your way and being determined. It’s work and finding a way to get out of it. We can’t sit around and feel sorry for ourselves.”
Jason Zucker gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead on a 2-on-1 at 6:28 of the first period after taking a pass from Malkin in the right face-off circle.
Josh Archibald scored for the second straight game when he buried a feed from Ryan Poehling at the side of the net on another 2-on-1 to make it 2-0 at 5:50 of the second period.
JJ Peterka cut it to 2-1 at 18:51 after taking a pass from Power at the half wall and skating to the top of the right circle.
Jake Guentzel restored the two-goal lead on a power play eight seconds into the third when Kris Letang sent him on a breakaway with a stretch pass from inside the Penguins blue line to make it 3-1.
“That first part of the game, I thought we did a pretty good job of just creating offense off of defense,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “We got a number of 2-on-1s, odd-man rushes just by defending hard and making good decisions, winning the wall battles, getting pucks behind their defensemen and getting in foot races. And then I thought the third period or the second part of the game, we just didn’t do as good a job at beating the pressure on the walls and just recognizing danger and just making simple plays.”
Video: PIT@BUF: Guentzel scores PPG in 3rd period
Thompson cut it to 3-2 with a one-timer from the left circle on the power play at 3:21. Olofsson was left uncovered and tied it 3-3 from the right circle at 6:29 off a fake-shot pass from Power that froze DeSmith.
“Like everyone else, I thought he was going to shoot it at first,” Olofsson said. “But I was ready for it. It was a nice fake pass and fake shot and incredible pass.”
Tuch drove to the net and redirected a pass from Thompson to give Buffalo a 4-3 lead at 10:34.
“To give up the goal immediately to fall down two goals, we hadn’t had a good night to that point yet, and then we responded,” Sabers coach Don Granato said. “So, it is a testament to the group’s will, determination. But I think they also, they know and we know their identity, and we knew we weren’t playing to it to that point. I think the collective feel going into the third (was), ‘We are going to get to that, and we are going to turn it up.'”
Kyle Okposo (18:24) and Olofsson (19:53) each scored an empty-net goal for the 6-3 final.
“[The mood in the room is] what you’d expect for a team that’s blown a couple of leads on back-to-back nights and winless in six,” Crosby said. “I mean, it’s not a great feeling and we’ve got to find a way to get out of it.”
Video: PIT@BUF: Tuch gives Sabers lead in 3rd period
NOTES: Crosby, Guentzel and forward Bryan Rust were each minus-4. … Letang had an assist but was minus-3 in 23:24 of ice time after missing the game Tuesday due to illness. … DeSmith played his 100th NHL game. … Pittsburgh played without a forward Jeff Carter, who is day to day with a lower-body injury. … Thompson is the first Sabers skater since Maxim Afinogenov in 2006-07 and the 10th in their history with 10 or more points in a three-game span. Only Pat LaFontaine had more points in three games (13 from Oct. 23-30, 1992) than Thompson’s 11 (six goals, five assists). … Power was plus-3 and had four shots on goal in 23:51, and Dahlin had five shots on goal and four blocks in a game-high 29:25.
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