BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Ever since the Penguins acquired Evan Rodrigues from the Sabres last season, he just seems to elevate his game against his former team, especially when the Penguins are on the road.
Last time the Penguins were in Buffalo, Rodrigues set a career high in shots on goal in one of the games with eight, scoring on one of them.
Given the history, it wasn't surprising to see Rodrigues come out of the gate flying the way he did in Saturday's 3-2 win over the Sabres at KeyBank Center, recording three shots on goal in the first period alone on five attempts. He was all over the Sabres when they had the puck, and he was putting everything on net when it was on his stick. It felt like he was due.
Feels like an Evan Rodrigues goal is coming at some point here.
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) April 17, 2021
It didn't take long for those efforts to translate into a goal.
In the opening minutes of the second period, Rodrigues was putting pressure on Dylan Cozens while Cozens carried the puck behind the Sabres' net, and forced Cozens to lose the puck twice. Teddy Blueger caught the bouncing puck on his stick the second time Cozens lost it, and backhanded the pass to Rodrigues in front of the net. Rodrigues put a wrist shot past Dustin Tokarski for his sixth goal of the season and second against the Sabres:
"It just seems to be finding me when we play these guys," Rodrigues said after the game. "I try to come into every game doing the same thing, but early in the past two games against these guys the puck just seems to be getting to my stick. Luckily I've been able to put a couple in the back of the net."
With Jeff Carter sticking on the second line since being acquired by the Penguins, Rodrigues has been playing on the third line with Teddy Blueger and Zach Aston-Reese. It's been an easy transition for Rodrigues.
"Those two are awesome," Rodrigues said of his linemates. "They're so easy to play with, both really smart hockey players. They're really easy to read off of. They're two guys who make the simple play, do the right thing. We seem to be jelling really quick, which is nice."
Rodrigues finished the game with five shots on goal, one of four Penguins players to put at least five shots on Tokarski, who faced a total of 41 shots in the game. Mike Matheson led the way with seven, and Rodrigues, Bryan Rust, and Jared McCann all took five each.
McCann's first shot in the first period showed that there was no thing as a bad shot in this game.
Matheson took a shot from the point that Tokarski stopped with his pad, and the rebound bounced behind the net. McCann recovered the puck, and McCann took a no-look shot off the backside of Tokarski and into the net:
"It's a real heads-up play by Jared," Mike Sullivan said. "It's not something that we have a lot of discussion about, but I will say that he's watched Sid do it a number of times a year here for a couple of years. I think Sid scores more goals from below the goal line than anyone that I can think of. It might look like happenstance, it may look like it's a lucky play, but it's a real calculated play."
The Penguins controlled the play for the rest of the first period, finishing the frame with 12 shots to the Sabres' six.
The Sabres seemed to have some extra jump early in the second period, and after Rodrigues' goal, Tage Thompson responded less than a minute later. Tristan Jarry's attempted clear didn't make it out of the Penguins' zone, then Jason Zucker couldn't recover the bouncing puck after Thompson's initial attempt:
Rust regained the two-goal lead later in the second period when the Penguins were on their second power play of the game. Sidney Crosby -- who had spent much of the power play up until that point directing play from below the goal line -- received a pass from Jake Guentzel and moved down to the left circle. Rust redirected Crosby's shot-pass into the net:
The Sabres made a push to tie the game in the second half of the third period. The Sabres got their first power play of the game midway through the third period when Mark Jankowski got called for holding, and Casey Mittelstadt cut the Penguins' lead to one goal with a one-timer:
The Sabres got a number of quality chances toward the end the game, but Jarry's strong play prevented them from tying it.
"He was solid," Sullivan said of Jarry. "He made some big saves down the stretch. I thought he was solid most of the night. He was good. I think our goaltending tandem has been really solid for quite some time now."
"He's stolen a lot of games for us," Cody Ceci said. "Late in games he makes those big saves, he's a great goaltender. We have to try to do a better job at the end of games, but teams are going to push, they're going to try and win. He's been great for us, holding us in those games."
The Sabres at this point in the season remind me a little of the 2003-04 Penguins team. Both teams had a record 18-game losing streak, then so much pressure was lifted when the streak ended. In the 2003-04 Penguins' case, they had a winning record to finish that season, and these Sabres are probably playing the best they have all season as well. The final three games against the Sabres won't be an easy six points.
"They've got a lot of young skill on their team," McCann said. "A lot of young players with Thompson and Mittelstadt and those guys. We sat back a bit tonight and kind of let their skill take over. It's something we need to learn from and try to improve on."
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The loss officially eliminated the Sabres from playoff contention. I'm just surprised it took this long to happen.
"I didn't even know that," Rodrigues said when asked about his former team being eliminated from contention. "I don't think it was really on anyone's mind for us. We're focused on where we are in the standings and trying to put ourselves in the best position moving forward to the playoffs."
• The win gave the Penguins sole possession of second place in the East Division, leapfrogging the Islanders by a point. They trail the Capitals by three points for first place with a game in hand.
• Tokarski started for the Sabres because Linus Ullmark and Carter Hutton are both hurt. This is his third game against the Penguins this season, and all were strong performances even though he took the loss in all three. With the Penguins and Sabres playing back-to-back games this weekend, either Tokarski will have to start back-to-back as he did in the last series agains the Penguins, or Michael Houser will make his first NHL start after spending last season in the ECHL.
• Brian Dumoulin's point streak ended at six games. Is it a coincidence that both Dumoulin and Rust went on hot streaks after losing the Mustache Boy shootouts?
• This was the first time two teams cohosted a Pride Night in the NHL, and it was done well. It was cool to see the response from LGBTQ+ fans on social media talking about how much the gesture meant to them. The specialty warmup jerseys and sticks with the Pride Tape are available for auction here, with thousands of dollars already raised for various charities. The proceeds from the Penguins portion of the auction benefit the You Can Play program and the Pittsburgh Tigers. The Tigers, a group that aims to "create an open and supportive environment for gay, lesbian, bi, transgender and other minority hockey" players, play in different local leagues and road tournaments.
"It's huge," McCann said of being involved in the night. "It's the first time it's been done in the league. I think the league's done a great job so far of it this year, we're just going to try to keep it going."
In case you missed it, Tom Reed spoke to Penguins president of hockey operations Brian Burke about his support for the LGBTQ+ community, which is inspired by his late son Brendan. If you're not sure why nights like these are still needed and why there's still work to be done, read Tom's story.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at KeyBank Center:
1. Tristan Jarry, Penguins
2. Jared McCann, Penguins
3. Tage Thompson, Sabres
THE INJURIES
• Defenseman Mark Friedman is day-to-day with an upper-body injury sustained on March 4. He's resumed practicing with the team.
• Forward Evgeni Malkin is week-to-week with a lower-body injury sustained on March 16. He's resumed skating and is expected to resume before the end of the regular seasons.
• Forward Kasperi Kapanen is week-to-week with a lower-body injury sustained March 24. He's resumed skating on his own.
• Forward Brandon Tanev is week-to-week with an upper-body injury sustained on April 3. He's not expected to return before the end of the regular season.
• Forward Freddy Gaudreau is week-to-week with a lower-body injury sustained on April 11.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Jared McCann-Jeff Carter-Jason Zucker
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Evan Rodrigues
Radim Zohorna-Mark Jankowski-Colton Sceviour
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Mike Matheson-Cody Ceci
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
And for Don Granato's Sabres::
Jeff Skinner-Sam Reinhart-Victor Olofsson
Rasmus Asplund-Casey Mittelstadt-Tage Thompson
Anders Bjork-Dylan Cozens-Arttu Ruotsalainen
Tobias Rieder-Cody Eakin-Steven Fogarty
Jacob Bryson-Rasmus Ristolainen
Rasmus Dahlin-Henri Jokiharju
Matt Irwin-Colin Miller
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will play the Sabres again Sunday at 3:08 p.m., then get the day off on Monday.
THE CONTENT
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