BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Penguins were in great shape as they marched in for the second intermission. Sidney Crosby had netted another, Alex Nedeljkovic was on his game again and they comfortably led 2-0 at KeyBank Center.
Meanwhile, boos rained down on the Buffalo Sabres as they left the ice, the home crowd certain its disappointing young club was on its way to another loss.
But, as Nedeljkovic noted after the game, “It kind of fell apart fast in the third.”
Yes, just like that, they blew a two-goal lead in the third period and lost 3-2 to the Buffalo Sabres. Alex Tuch buried the winner with 2:44 remaining. His goal was the third the Sabres scored in the span of 12 minutes, three seconds.
The Penguins have now lost four of five since their five-game winning streak.
“It’s tough. You don’t ever want to be riding that rollercoaster, going up and down. You want to try to be as even keeled as possible,” Nedeljkovic said. “But things aren’t going our way right now. We worked. We got some good bounces. We generated some good stuff, too. Tonight just didn’t go our way.”
Their collapse started 5:13 into the third, when Jeff Skinner scored a power-play goal. That hooking call on Evgeni Malkin made Mike Sullivan fuming mad on the bench and had his players griping at the refs the rest of the game.
“I thought that call on Geno was terrible, the one that led to their momentum,” Ryan Graves said. “I think that rattled us a little bit. Which, that can’t happen.”
Sullivan said Skinner’s goal gave the Sabres “juice” and added that the Penguins needed to be “better at pushing back.” Buffalo was the better team going forward and generated seven scoring chances off Pittsburgh turnovers in the third period, per Sportlogiq. The next goal came after another giveaway.
The Sabres tied up the score 2-2 when Kyle Okposo’s attempted back-door pass hit the stick of Erik Karlsson and deflected past a helpless Nedeljkovic. That play happened after Jake Guentzel misfired on a pass at the other end.
The re-energized KeyBank Center crowd gave the home team a rousing round of applause at the next TV timeout, as if to say they never had any doubt.
The Penguins had a chance to retake the lead with a late power play. But despite making drastic changes on that unit, they were scoreless again Friday.
After the Penguins went 0 for 5 on the power play in Wednesday’s 1-0 loss to the New York Rangers, Sullivan split up his personnel into two groups at Thursday’s practice, hoping it would give his stars a mental reset and get them to simplify their approach. He acknowledged it might be a short-term thing.
When the Penguins got their first power play on Friday, the first five guys Sullivan sent over the boards were Crosby, Guentzel, Vinnie Hinostroza, Radim Zohorna and Karlsson. Malkin and Letang were deployed on the other unit.
The coach opted against sending out his full complement of stars for that critical power play with 6:31 remaining in the game. That decision didn’t pay off.
“They were OK,” Sullivan said tersely when asked to assess the power play.
The Penguins have not scored on the man advantage in the last six games.
Less than two minutes after the Penguins power play once again failed to come through, Skinner fought off Letang behind the Pittsburgh net and centered the puck out to Tuch, who beat Nedeljkovic to complete the comeback.
“They honestly just got a couple of good bounces,” said Nedeljkovic, who made 31 saves. “The second one went off our own stick. They were throwing pucks on net. The third one stemmed from them just [shooting] from the corner. It hit the post and it kind just managed to settle behind the net for [Skinner].”
Crosby gave the Penguins another early lead with 3:14 left in what was an evenly played first period. Guentzel hustled to steal the puck from Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson then got it to Crosby in the high slot. The captain dropped to a knee to rip his one-timer past Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
The Penguins took advantage of another botched breakout by the Sabres to make it 2-0 late in the second period. Owen Power whiffed on a pass. Matt Nieto quickly found Lars Eller, who launched a perfect shot into the top right corner.
The third was all Buffalo, sending the Penguins south with this stunning loss.
ICE CHIPS
• Prior to Skinner’s power-play goal, the Penguins had killed their first two penalties and at that point were 23 for 24 on the PK over the span of nine games.
• Crosby has 13 goals this season, lifting him into the NHL’s top five. Crosby and his linemates continue to carry Pittsburgh at 5-on-5. Through 19 games, the team has scored 45 even-strength goals. Crosby’s line has 26 of them.
• Bryan Rust missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury. But he did get back on the ice Friday, participating in the optional morning skate. The winger, who has nine goals in his 17 games, is still considered day to day.
• John Ludvig appeared in his second straight game. Fellow defenseman Dmitri Samorukov and forward Jansen Harkins were their healthy scratches.
• Other than the goalie, the Penguins rolled out the same lineup as Wednesday’s loss to the Rangers. Drew O’Connor remained on their top line with Rust out. And Alex Nylander got another opportunity alongside Malkin and Smith.
• Letang and Sabres forward Peyton Krebs got into a scuffle in the second period. After Krebs fell to the ice, Letang slugged him in the face with his right glove. Krebs, who fought Crosby this preseason, screamed at Letang on his way to the box and continued to bark at Letang during their two-minute minors.
STAT N’AT
2 – Friday was the second game the Penguins lost this season when leading after two periods. They also blew a two-goal lead in their season opener.
THEY SAID IT
“It’s tough, but you’ve got to rebound. We’ve got a game again [Saturday] against a really good team that’s got a lot of firepower,” said Nedeljkovic, now 2-2-0 on the season. “We have to find a way to pick ourselves up, get back home, get rested and come back with the same effort, if not a little bit more.”
COMING UP
The Penguins are back in action Saturday night, hosting Kyle Dubas’ former team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, at PPG Paints Arena. Start time is 7 p.m.
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel
First Published: November 25, 2023, 1:45 a.m.
Updated: November 25, 2023, 3:14 p.m.