Penguins Power (Play) Past Sabres in OT

I’ll be honest. I wasn’t looking forward to the Penguins’ matchup with the Sabres and their NHL-best offense last night on the Niagara Frontier. Especially in the wake of the blue-and-gold’s recent 9-4 destruction of Columbus and Tage Thompson’s Mario-esque five-goal performance.

These guys are young, fast, hungry and skilled. My worst nightmare for an opponent.

My fears were reinforced during the first period as the Sabres ran up a sizeable 13-6 edge in shots on goal while using their wheels to dictate the tempo. Fortunately for the black and gold, Tristan Jarry stood taller than a bell tower to keep the Sabres off the board.

The second period was more of the same, with our hosts again pushing the pace. Then the Pens caught a break. Just past the 14-minute mark Casey Mittelstadt ran Rickard Rakell hard into the wall to nab an interference penalty. While the call may have been borderline, the results were not. Evgeni Malkin tried a short pass to Sidney Crosby that glanced off the stick of Mattias Samuelsson (son of Kjell) and directly to Jake Guentzel in the left circle.

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