At The Final Horn: Sabres 2 - Penguins 5

The Buffalo Sabres' winless streak reached a franchise-record 15 games with the team's 5-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday at PPG Paints Arena.
Rasmus Dahlin scored his first goal since January 31 and Victor Olofsson scored on a penalty shot for Buffalo. Dustin Tokarski, making his first start since December 21, 2015, stopped 37 shots.
Evan Rodrigues, Kris Letang, John Marino, Zach Aston-Reese and Sidney Crosby scored for the Penguins. Tristan Jarry made 26 saves.
Buffalo is 0-13-2 over the last 15 games. The team's last win came on February 23.
The Sabres went 0-for-3 on the power play, bringing the team to an 0-for-24 skid with the man advantage, and they also allowed a shorthanded goal. Buffalo was 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.

What happened

The Penguins kept Tokarski busy early. They opened the game with a 4-1 edge in shots. And in the first 3:30, Pittsburgh's chances also included sequences where Henri Jokiharju had to clear the puck from entering an open net and a hit crossbar.
Pittsburgh broke through 7:36 into the contest. On an odd-man rush into the Sabres zone, Sam Lafferty sent the puck over to Rodrigues on the right wing who redirected it in past Tokarski.
Letang capitalized with 4:16 left in the first to make it 2-0. Crosby threw a puck in front of the net and it ricocheted right to Letang, who potted it.
Then off a faceoff with 2:43 remaining in the first period, Dahlin's quick slap shot from the point made its way through traffic and past Jarry, putting Buffalo within one.
Pittsburgh extended its lead to 3-1 when Marino's point shot beat Tokarski with 2:31 left in the second. Colton Sceviour set up a successful screen.
The Penguins scored one more time before the end of the second period, this time while shorthanded. Frederick Gaudreau picked off a Sabres pass at their own blue line and then skated in on a breakaway before being cut off by Dahlin and Taylor Hall. Gaudreau slowed down, cut to his right and then dropped the puck off to his trailer in Aston-Reese, who got his stick in a shooting lane for an easy goal with 23.9 seconds remaining.
After two periods, Pittsburgh was outshooting Buffalo 34-18.
Crosby added Pittsburgh's fifth goal while on a breakaway during 4-on-4 play, wristing in an on-edge puck 3:57 into the third.
Olofsson converted on his penalty shot with 5:25 left.
The goal marked Buffalo's first successful penalty shot attempt since Jack Eichel scored on Edmonton's Mike Smith on January 2, 2020.

Roll the highlight film

Watch the penalty shot goal here:

Worth mentioning

Before pregame warmups, the Sabres announced that forward Tage Thompson would miss the game due to an illness. Buffalo skated with seven defensemen.
Rasmus Asplund left the game 6:08 in with an injury and did not return.
Tobias Rieder and Carter Hutton were also scratched due to injury. Kyle Okposo was placed on injured reserve. He is not on the trip with the team.

Coming up

The back-to-back set concludes tomorrow night when the Sabres and Penguins face off again at PPG Paints Arena. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550 with pregame coverage on MSG starting at 6:30.