Svedberg earns shutout as Bruins blank Sabres

Niklas Svedberg made 32 saves in his first NHL shutout, and the Boston Bruins beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-0 on Saturday night in Buffalo, New York.

It was just the third career start for Svedberg, who replaced Tuukka Rask in the third period of Boston’s loss Thursday at Montreal.

Dougie Hamilton, Zdeno Chara, Torey Krug and Carl Soderberg scored for the Bruins (3-4). All four goals came at even strength, and three were scored against Buffalo’s top line.

The Sabres (1-5) were shut out in consecutive games for the first time since October 2003. Buffalo went 0 for 7 on the power play, falling to 0 for 18 on the season.

Jhonas Enroth made 31 saves.

The Bruins’ first three goals were scored by defensemen.

Hamilton rifled in a wrist shot from the right point to give Boston a 1-0 lead midway through the first period. Patrice Bergeron set it up with a pass from the corner.

Chara’s slap shot from the right pointmade it 2-0 with 6:29 left in the period. Brad Marchand and Hamilton assisted on the goal.

Svedberg made 16 saves in the first period, and the Bruins killed off two penalties.

Krug scored on a long wrist shot off of David Krejci’s faceoff win to put the Bruins up 3-0 midway through the second period.

Soderberg made it 4-0 when he took Chris Kelly’s pass from behind the net and roofed a backhanded shot from pointblank range with 5:12 left in the second. PENGUINS 3, ISLANDERS 1 » at Pittsburgh, Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist scored power-play goals 55 seconds apart in the second period, and Pittsburgh handed New York its first loss of the season.

The Islanders (4-1) had been the NHL’s last unbeaten team.

Hornqvist, who assisted on Malkin’s goal, added an empty-net tally with 1:20 left to seal the Penguins’ win.

Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby had two assists, including the 500th of his career.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 30 saves in the win.

Thomas Hickey staked the Islanders to a 1-0 lead in the first period, but New York failed to post its first 5-0 start. Jaroslav Halak stopped 35 shots.