Penguins/Sabres Recap: Nedeljkovic scores goal, Pens cruise to 5-2 win in Buffalo

Big night for Alex Nedeljkovic, big night for the Penguins

Pregame

Kris Letang is ill so the Penguins have to shuffle around their defensive pairs. Up front, Anthony Beauvillier has no points in his last eight games (and just three in his last 25) and that’s somehow still legitimately making him a best choice to play with Evgeni Malkin.

The homestanding Sabres are wearing ugly jerseys and using these lines.

First period

Not much going on early. Evgeni Malkin gets tripped halfway through the first and then returns the favor by taking a double-minor penalty for high-sticking on the power play. Nedeljkovic makes a cracker jack save on it but the Pens can’t clear and Owen Power snaps a heavy shot by the screened Penguin goalie to make it 1-0 Buffalo with 4:44 left to play.

Shots are 10-7 Buffalo through 20 minutes.

Second period

The Pens get off to a hot start in the second with two goals within 27 seconds near the beginning of the period.

The turn starts when Rasmus Dahlin high-sticks Bryan Rust. Rust makes a nice touch pass over to Rickard Rakell for his team-high 23rd goal of the season. 1-1.

On the next shift, Cody Glass wires a beautiful lead pass up ahead for Beauvillier. He fights off the check from behind him and zips a shot high to the glove side of the Buffalo goalie. 2-1 Pens lead, just like that.

Malkin made a power move to the net with the puck, got taken down and earned another power play for the Pens. It started with a huge save by Nedeljkovic before play went the other way and Philip Tomasino left a drop pass for Glass to slam into the net for just his second goal of the season. 3-1 Pens.

Malkin drives hard to the net again, but this time takes a penalty when his hip clips the goalie’s head while in the crease, but it’s soon wiped out when Tage Thompson gets whistled for interference.

Great period for the Pens, a feisty Nedeljkovic battled to stop all 13 shots he saw, and Pittsburgh touched up Buffalo for three goals to move into the lead.

Third period

Bryan Rust snaps in another on the carryover power play from the previous period. Pens in cruise control up 4-1.

Graves and Jason Zucker get an early start to their nights when both get tossed with 7:57 to go with matching game misconducts over a little pushing and shoving following a cross-check.

Zach Benson gets one back for Buffalo, 4-2 game.

The Sabres pull the goalie, even though there’s only 5 mins left. I like it, let’s get saucy. And saucy we will get, Nedeljkovic collects a weak dump-in by Buffalo and has the chance to take a shot at the open cage. He doesn’t miss, firing a hard shot all the way down the ice and into the net, right down the middle. Second goalie goal in Pens’ history. 5-2.

That’s it and that’s all.

Some thoughts

• Kevin Hayes used his powers of persuasion to get almost the whole team (minus the follicly-impaired Owen Pickering) to shave their facial hair into mustaches for the start of this road trip. A+++ as a vibes guy, that Kevin Hayes.
• That said, when go re-watch the highlight of the first Buffalo goal and the structure of the Pens’ PK. Hayes has to respect the pass back to the wall, leaving Power to fake him and skate into space with absolutely no one around since Beauvillier is caught all the way down by the net. The Pens were scrambling a little and broken down by this point into a terrible alignment. A hunch is that a breakdown like this is going to be a big reason why Matt Nieto dresses next game.
• I could only see it was a right-handed player from way deep in his own end sending that pass up for Beauvillier on the Pittsburgh second goal and thought at first blush thought that it must have been Erik Karlsson (who was also on the ice at that time). That’s a high compliment for Glass’s pass to be momentarily mistaken for one of the best stretch passers in the NHL.
• Nedeljkovic earned an assist on Glass’s power play goal, which means the goalie recorded a point this season before Ryan Graves. Then he scored a goal and was just showing off at that point.
• Jocularity aside, it was a dream game for Nedeljkovic. He can read a stat sheet and see his marks aren’t much different than the guy who just got waived. Huge performance tonight with 40 saves and the icing on the cake to seal the win with a goal. Great stuff. Nedeljkovic likely won the game in the second period with several clutch stops, precisely what the team needed. He was great all night.
• Joseph took a minor penalty for the second game in a row, and it’s now up to three minors in four games (and five penalties in eight games since the turn of the New Year). He’s gonna have to find a way to stay out of the box so much.
• Speaking of penalties, it was an eventful one for Malkin, as it often is. The big guy took six minutes of his own but drew two minor penalties (where his team scored on both of those power plays earned). Gotta love to see him driving to the net multiple times, he didn’t mean to clip the goalie but he did. It’s a penalty but certainly one that you don’t mind him taking more than the usual stick fouls since playing aggressive and going to the front will pay off much more than it hurts.
• This game was a blueprint for the Penguins. They need a goalie who battles and is successful at keeping pucks out of the net. They need players like Glass and Malkin to pop off the page and make impacts with the puck. They need someone like Beauvillier to show up every now and then with a goal. Rust and Rakell doing their thing on the power play. Good win, borne out of a lot of encouraging inputs. Now the trick becomes consistency, the Sabres are in last place in the conference, after all, this was far from a statement win – but it broke a three-game losing streak and showed what the Pens can be at their best.

Road trip off to a good start, but it’s only a start. Big one tomorrow down in DC against the first place Capitals.