Tonight, the Pittsburgh Penguins will put their six-game winning streak on the line against the worst team in the National Hockey League, the Buffalo Sabres. It will be the third game of a five-game road trip for the Penguins, their longest of the season.
Coming off a pair of hard-fought contests in Winnipeg and Minnesota, the Penguins will have another strong test tonight as the Sabres will be desperate to get a win after dropping five of their last six contests.
It will be the second matchup between the two teams in a week. Last Saturday night in Pittsburgh, the Penguins trounced the Sabres 5-0 behind power play goals from Chris Kunitz, Patric Hornqvist, and Evgeni Malkin, and strong goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury.
[youtube width=”560″ height=”315″ link=”http://youtu.be/51UaznHS0iQ?t=13s”]
TONIGHT’S OPPONENT: The Sabres lost Sunday night to the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2. It will be the fifthtime that the Sabres have played back-to-back games this season. Their record is 2-2 in the second game so far. Beyond losing the game, the Sabres may have lost second-leading scorer Tyler Ennis to a suspension for abuse of officials after tapping a linesman with a stick at the end of the game.
[youtube width=”560″ height=”315″ link=”http://youtu.be/zx2BuLiabjE”]
He received a game misconduct for the play, but the league has not yet ruled on any possible suspension.
Jhonas Enroth will start in goal for the Sabres. Enroth is 1-4 with a .899 save percentage in five games against Pittsburgh. He was on the losing end of Buffalo’s 5-0 loss to the Penguins last week. He’ll be helped out by defensemen Mike Weber and Tyson Strachan, who are returning from injury for Buffalo.
WE’RE GOING STREAKING: In addition to the Penguins six-game winning streak, they have several other streaks rolling coming into Buffalo.
The Penguins have beaten the Sabres in four consecutive games, and in three consecutive games in Buffalo’s First Niagara Arena. Marc-Andre Fleury has also won his last four games against the Sabres. He will start in goal tonight. Penguins’ captain Sidney Crosby has recorded a point in 18 consecutive games against the Sabres, with 10 goals and 21 assists in that span.
The Peguins’ penalty kill has successfully defended 34 consecutive penalties, which is a team record. They’ve also killed off every penalty in nine consecutive games, which is tied for the team record. The power play’s streak followed a stretch of poor play at the beginning of the season, and Gary Agnew’s unit has really turned things around.
“Early in the year, we had a few gifts,” center Brandon Sutter said. “Since then, we’ve worked on a few things [like] not letting a lot of pucks going through our forwards and defensemen through the seams. Since we’ve cracked that down, it’s really helped.”
MAN IN THE BOX: Steve Downie recorded 22 penalty minutes in the team’s 4-3 shootout victory over Winnipeg on Thursday. He now leads the league with 49 penalty minutes on the season over 12 games. That pace would give him 335 penalty minutes on the season, which would be the third-most in team history, and the most since 1982.
MINOR MATTERS: The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL) defeated the Hershey Bears by a score of 3-2 in overtime. Forward Jayson Megna tied the game late in the third and scored the game-winner in overtime. Defenseman Taylor Chorney had a goal and an assist. Beau Bennett had an assist and was a plus-3. Matt Murray made 14 saves to earn the victory. The Penguins travel to Binghamton tonight.
The Wheeling Nailers (ECHL) lost 6-3 to the Evansville Icemen in Evansville. Matia Marcantuoni scored a hat trick. Franky Palazzese made 25 saves in the loss. The Nailers host Cincinnati tonight at 7:35 p.m.
Photo credit: NHL
