BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Penguins received five goals from five different players in a convincing 5-0 win over the Sabres on Thursday.
They all counted the same and all are surely welcome. And that's to take nothing away from the goals from Brian Dumoulin, Nick Bjugstad and Jake Guentzel. Dumoulin's was just his third of the season, Bjugstad's was a perfectly-fired missile and Guentzel, man, everything that guy gets a stick on is going in these days.
But one has to think that the second-period power-play goals scored by Phil Kessel and Patric Hornqvist are potentially a little more meaningful. In the bigger picture, that's what matters most at this point.
Thursday night's win pulled the Penguins to within four points of the first-place Capitals in the Metro. They have earned at least a point in nine of their last 10 and have allowed two or fewer goals in six of their last nine.
Those are all encouraging signs, to be sure, but most encouraging is the recent play of Hornqvist and Kessel. As the team heads down the home stretch and into the playoffs, the Penguins need those two to be, well, Hornqivst and Kessel. Thursday's win was yet another step in the right direction after what's been an uneven season for both.
Kessel's goal at 6:40 of the second period (read The Good, below) was his 24th of the season and second power-play goal in as many games. He hadn't scored power-play goals in consecutive games since Nov. 13 and 15 vs. the Lighting and Devils. He now has three goals in his last five games after going the previous 16 games without one.
Though Sidney Crosby and Guentzel earned the assists, credit also goes to Sullivan for keeping faith in his star right winger. It was after Kessel's egregious turnover in Columbus last weekend, leading to the Penguins giving up their 14th short-handed goal, that Sullivan split up his power play units.
After restoring the original units during Tuesday's win over the Capitals, Sullivan said he "believed" in them. On Thursday, Kessel rewarded Sullivan again.
"A lot of Phil's game, when he's having success on the power play, it carries over onto 5-on-5," Sullivan was saying. "It helps with his confidence. I think all our top players are that way. You could put them all in that category. When it's going well for them on the power play, that confidence carries over onto their 5-on-5 play. Phil scoring tonight, the last couple games, it has been good for him and helped his overall game."
Same goes for Hornqvist:
After returning from a concussion just prior to the All-Star break, he too went 16 games without a goal. While some questioned whether injuries had finally caught up to the rugged winger, or whether the Penguins might regret that five-year, $26.5 million contract extension, Hornqvist says he never wavered.
"If you do the right things over and over, it's going to come," Hornqvist said.
The production might not have been there, but effort has never been an issue with him. Hornqvist still goes to the net like a runaway freight train and is still this team's emotional leader. He ended his drought two weeks ago in this same building, but he'd been held without a goal in the six games since then. That includes Tuesday's win over the Capitals, when he hit the crossbar on an empty net.
"That bounce you would never see again," Hornqvist was saying Thursday night with a smile. "Obviously, it happened to me but we can all laugh about it now."
He and his teammates can laugh about it now because at 17:08 of the second, Hornqvist scored his 17th of the season -- on an assist from Kessel -- by lifting this backhander over Carter Hutton:
That goal above, scored from his typical spot above the crease, gives Hornqvist points in seven of the last 10 games.
"He's playing a lot better," Sullivan said when I asked about the 32-year-old. "He's chipping in on some goals here. He's going to the net, doing the things he does. When he stays with it and plays the game the right way, he's going to find the net. He's around the net so much. I thought he was pretty good tonight."
Indeed, pretty good ... but not great. If the Penguins are to win a third Cup in four years, they can't be a one-line team and certainly not one that relies solely on its power play for offense. They saw the results of that last spring in their second-round loss to the Capitals.
Over their previous eight games, the Penguins have received more than two-thirds of their goals from the top line of Crosby, Jared McCann and Guentzel. And as good as the power play has been the last two games, now 5-for-8 after going 3-for-4 on Thursday, the Penguins probably shouldn't count on the officials giving them four and five chances a night in the playoffs.
"When we're playing our best hockey, it's hard to stop us out there," Hornqvist was saying of the power play. "We were moving the puck really quick."
However, the Penguins' play at even strength on Thursday was yet another encouraging development. The second line of Malkin, Kessel and Teddy Blueger had a 60.0 Corsi For percentage. That was the same percentage as the third line of Bjugstad, Dom Simon and Hornqvist.
Now, it's a matter of producing in all situations.
"If we want to be where we want to go, we have to have all four lines chipping in offensively and defensively," Hornqvist said. "The first line have been good the last 2-3 months, the other three have to get better 5-on-5."
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THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Sidney Crosby
Penguins center
With two assists, giving him 92 points on the season, the "Heartbeat," as Sullivan called him, is making a convincing case for the Hart, as well as the Selke.
2. Casey DeSmith
Penguins goaltender
Twenty-six shots, 26 saves for the backup goalie's first win since Feb. 17 vs. the Rangers and third shutout.
3. Nick Bjugstad
Penguins center
With a goal and assist, Bjugstad now has points in three of the last five games and his first multi-point performance as a Penguin.
THE GOOD
The Sabres have now gone 197:44 without scoring a goal and based on what they showed Thursday, they might go another 197:44 more. But give the Penguins some credit. They didn't give them much.
"Definitely a team shutout, a team win," said DeSmith.
In addition to Dumoulin's second-period goal, the defense corps provided 15 blocks, eight of them in a tight first period. However, no statistic -- advanced or otherwise -- can better demonstrate the Penguins' recent commitment to defense than Erik Gudbranson's poke-check on Conor Sheary late in the second period:
If Sheary is even, he's leaving, right? Nope. The speedy Sheary got the puck at center ice and should probably get a breakaway. Instead, he was chased down by Gudbranson, who matter-of-factly knocked the puck off Sheary's stick.
It's true you can't teach 6-foot-5, but that's a race that Sheary should win. Apparently the big defenseman can skate a little bit and torment Tom Wilson, too. That's a win-win.
THE BAD
OK, so the Penguins were leading 4-0 in the middle of the third period against a team that is already making tee times. Lo and behold, that's when Malkin decided to engage Johan Larsson in some pushing and shoving that quickly escalated into actual punches being thrown:
Remarkably, the two combatants were given just minors each for roughing. That's beside the point, of course. Not to nitpick here, but a couple of things: One, never fight (or rough) when you're up four. Two, if you're one of the best players on the planet, why are you instigating a fight against Johan Larsson?
We've seen Malkin take many, many ill-timed or offensive zone penalties, but what are you doing, man?
THE PLAY
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
Basically, that was how Crosby finally connected with Kessel on the Penguins' first power play goal at 15:07 of the second. From the right circle, Crosby wired a gorgeous seam pass across to Kessel at the left side of the net that Kessel was able to one-time past Hutton -- apparently, he can do more than fire wristers:
"Overall, the first period wasn't great from either side," said Hornqvist. "When we got that power play, when you see something like that, they picked them apart. We got momentum, and we got confidence and we got our legs."
Good thing, too, because it was just 30 seconds earlier that Crosby passed up a shot from the slot to feed Kessel at the left side of the net. Instead of one-timing it, Kessel cradled the puck and tried to take it to the net, but he was denied by Hutton and Rasmus Ristolainen:
The lesson? Shoot the puck. The Penguins led the league on the man-advantage a season ago — 26.2 conversion rate — with Kessel leading the league in power-play points. The power play is at its best when it's running through Kessel at the left circle and not coughing up short-handed chances.
THE CALL
Since Sheary's overtime winner here two weeks ago, the Sabres had been winless in their last five games. That alone would have justified Sullivan's decision to get DeSmith some much-needed work in a still meaningful game.
Throw in the fact that the Sabres have been shut out in their previous two losses, that leading goal-scorer Jeff Skinner is mired in a 12-game goal-less drought and that Buffalo was once again without the services of leading point-man Jack Eichel. These made playing DeSmith a no-brainer.
The backup, who hadn't played in 21 days, rewarded Sullivan's faith by turning in a strong performance to earn his first shutout since Nov. 10 vs. the Coyotes.
If he was rusty, it didn't show:
He turned aside three of his 26 shots during a first-period Sabres power play, but saved his best for the second period when he stopped a dozen shots, including this one from point-blank range on Sheary to keep it scoreless:
"I just kind of threw my glove out there, it was pure reaction," DeSmith was saying. "Fortunate he put in a nice spot."
Then for good measure, Gudbranson put Sheary on his wallet. The former Penguin, who had four points in the previous two games against Pittsburgh, had a game-high six shots on goal with nothing to show for it.
"He made some big saves at key times for us that let us keep the lead and get our legs going," Sullivan said. "It took us a while to get our legs under us, then we started to play a little bit. But I thought he made some big saves in the first half of the game."
DeSmith ended Matt Murray's run of nine consecutive starts by winning for just the third time in his last eight starts. It was also his first road win since New Year's Eve in St. Paul, Minn.
"It gets frustrating," DeSmith said of sitting out. "Obviously, it's fun to sit and watch the team get a lot of wins, but it's nice to get in there and be a part of the team and get a couple of valuable two points."
THE OTHER SIDE
The Sabres had a 10-game winning streak in November and once had an 80 percent chance of qualifying for the postseason. How times have changed. The Sabres have now lost six in a row and 12 of their last 14 games in what will be an eighth straight playoff-less spring. Worse, they haven't fallen down far enough to give themselves the best shot at drafting first overall again.
Granted they were missing Eichel on Tuesday, but the Sabres looked like a team that had quit on Phil Housley. That was pretty evident when only six guys took the ice Thursday morning for an optional skate.
Sabres veteran Jason Pominville was most disturbed by his team's lack of compete on Dumoulin's goal. The Sabres were down 1-0 but held a 9-2 edge in shots at the start of the second period. That's when Malkin went for a victory lap around the Buffalo zone and found Dumoulin at the top of the left circle. With Blueger providing a screen, Dumoulin scored on a wrist shot at 4:53.
"That's winning hockey," Pominville said. "That's what we got to get back to. We've got to have more pride to get to that area, get our nose dirty. I mean, it's a tough league to score in. You've got to pay a price to get to the net and we got to get pucks there. Right now, we're definitely not doing it enough."
The Sabres, now 24th overall in the NHL, have four upcoming games against teams currently in a playoff spot, beginning with Saturday's game at Carolina.
THE DATA
• The Penguins are now 15-0-3 in their last 18 games against the Sabres. Their 18-game points streak is the longest in team history against one opponent.
• Simon had the highest Corsi For percentage at 5v5 with a 66.67. He was also on the ice for three high-danger chances for and none against. Still, he has just one goal in the last 27 games.
• Crosby now has points in 21 of the 22 games he's played in Buffalo. But he did see his streak of goals in four straight games in Western New York come to an end.
• In addition to his two-point game, Bjugstad also won nine of 12 draws.
• McCann was held off the scoresheet for just the second time in the last seven games.
THE INJURIES
• Zach Aston-Reese, forward, missed his second game with a hip injury and is now out "longer term."
• Kris Letang, defenseman, missed his ninth game with an upper body injury.
• Olli Maatta, defenseman, has a separated left shoulder sustained Feb. 11. He’s on IR.
• Bryan Rust, forward, missed his eighth game with a lower-body injury. He took part in the morning skate and is close to returning.
• Chad Ruhwedel, defenseman, missed his eighth game with an upper-body injury.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
McCann-Crosby-Guentzel
Blueger-Malkin-Kessel
Simon-Bjugstad-Hornqvist
Wilson-Cullen-Blandisi
Dumoulin-Trotman
Johnson-Schultz
Pettersson-Gudbranson
• And for Housley's Sabres:
Sheary-Rodrigues-Reinhart
Skinner-Sobotka-Pominville
Thompson-Mittelstadt-Nylander
Wilson-Larsson-Okposo
Hunwick-Ristolainen
Dahlin-Montour
Scandella-Nelson
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will practice at noon today in Cranberry. Taylor Haase has your coverage. The Penguins will host the Blues at 1 p.m. on Saturday and the Flyers at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.
THE COVERAGE
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MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins at Sabres, Buffalo, N.Y., March 14, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS