Jiri Kulich scored a pair of goals and Tage Thompson continued his productive preseason, but the Buffalo Sabres fell 5-4 in overtime to the Pittsburgh Penguins in their exhibition finale at PPG Paints Arena on Friday.
The Sabres dressed the majority of their NHL forward group but were without a large part of their primary defense corps, with Rasmus Dahlin given a rest day and Owen Power, Mattias Samuelsson, and Michael Kesselring all out due to injury. Power and Samuelsson are both on track to potentially play in next Thursday’s regular-season opener.
Pittsburgh dressed its full NHL lineup, headlined by Sidney Crosby – who scored the tying goal on the power play with 6:06 remaining in regulation and then netted the winner just nine seconds into overtime.
Alex Lyon started in goal for Buffalo and stopped 11 of 13 shots in two periods. Alexandar Georgiev played the third period and made 14 saves on 16 shots faced.
Buffalo trailed 1-0 after the first period thanks to an unusual goal, which began with Pittsburgh forward Philip Tomasino being brought down by Bowen Byram as the two skated toward the Sabres' net. Tomasino collided with Lyon, bringing the puck over the goal line with him, and officials let the goal stand following a review.
The Sabres took control during the middle period with four goals – two from Kulich, one from Thompson, and a power-play goal from Jason Zucker – to carry a 4-2 lead into the second intermission. Thompson’s goal was his fourth in four preseason games. He added an assist on Zucker’s goal for his seventh point, tied with linemate Josh Norris for the team lead in the preseason.
Pittsburgh responded by outshooting Buffalo 16-8 during the final 20 minutes and earning a pair of power plays. Rickard Rakell scored on the first man advantage to cut the Sabres’ lead to one; Crosby netted the tying goal on the next.
The Sabres conclude the preseason with a 3-3 record.
