Sabres’ 5-goal outburst in 3rd period sends Pens to 6th loss
Maple Leafs snap four-game skid
BUFFALO, N.Y., Nov 3, (AP): Alex Tuch scored with 9:26 left and the Buffalo Sabres had five goals in the third period to rally past the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 on Wednesday night.
Victor Oloffson, Tage Thompson, JJ Peterka and Kyle Okposo also scored for Buffalo. Eric Comrie made 18 saves.
Jason Zucker, Josh Archibald and Jake Guentzel scored for the Penguins, who have lost six straight games. Casey DeSmith made 26 saves.
It’s the longest losing streak for Pittsburgh since it also lost six in a row in February 2020. The Penguins’ latest loss comes after they surrendered a 5-2 lead on Tuesday in Boston before losing 6-5 in overtime.
Pittsburgh (4-5-2) had similar difficulties to open last season, opening the year with a record of 5-6-4, before turning things around and finishing with 46 wins.
“It’s not a great feeling and we’ve got to find a way to get out of it,” captain Sidney Crosby said.
Zucker opened the score 6:28 into the first, finishing a 2-on-1 rush with a blast from the right circle after a setup by Evgeni Malkin.
Archibald made it 2-0 5:50 into the second on a similar play to Pittsburgh’s first goal. This time it was Ryan Poehling who set up Archibald’s one-timer from the right circle.
ICE HOCKEY
Peterka got the Sabres on the board with 1:09 left in the second on a shot through traffic from behind the right circle. Rasmus Asplund assisted on Peterka’s goal and picked up his fifth point in his last five games.
Guentzel quickly restored Pittsburgh’s two-goal lead at the start of the third period, scoring just eight seconds into the period on a breakaway powerplay goal, but it didn’t last. Guentzel was spotted from long range by defenseman Kris Letang and scored on a shot to the blocker side.
Thompson jump-started Buffalo’s comeback 3:21 into the third with a power-play goal. Thompson continued his hot streak after a six-point night against Detroit on Monday.
Oloffson tied the game at 3-3 6:29 into the third on a blast from the right circle, scoring his seventh goal of the season, with Tuch’s game-winner coming four minutes later.
The Penguins pulled DeSmith with 2:14 remaining but Okposo scored an empty-net goal with 1:36 remaining. Oloffson added a second empty-net goal with 6.6 seconds left.
Penguins center Jeff Carter did not make the trip to Buffalo after suffering a lower-body injury on Saturday against Seattle. Carter has been considered day to day.
Both teams debuted their new “reverse retro” jerseys for the first time. Buffalo’s retro jerseys are a color variation of the uniforms they wore from 1996-2006, while the Penguins jerseys are a throwback to the 1990s.
Maple Leafs 5, Flyers 2
In Toronto,John Tavares had his 11th career hat trick and added an assist as the Toronto Maple Leafs snapped a four-game skid with a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Auston Matthews had a goal and an assist and Zach Aston-Reese also scored for Toronto. Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly each had two assists. Ilya Samsonov made 23 saves.
Joel Farabee and Owen Tippett scored for Philadelphia, which got 39 saves from backup Felix Sandstrom. Travis Konecny added two assists.