Penguins at Sabres
Less than 24 hours after rallying for an overtime victory, the Pittsburgh Penguins finish their stretch of three road games in four nights when they visit the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday. Pittsburgh began its condensed trek with an embarrassing 7-1 loss at Washington on Wednesday and fell behind the New York Islanders two days later before Trevor Daley scored the tying goal and fellow defenseman Kris Letang netted the winner 1:24 into the extra session.
Captain Sidney Crosby bounced back from his second scoreless performance in 10 games this season, scoring his team-high 11th goal and adding an assist to forge a three-way tie with Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel for the club lead at 15 points. Buffalo's slide reached six games (0-4-2) with a 4-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Thursday in the opener of its four-game homestand. Lack of scoring has been the Sabres' main issue, as they have been held to fewer than three goals in each of their nine contests this month after concluding October with a 3-1 triumph at Winnipeg. Matt Moulson leads Buffalo with six goals - five on the power play - while Kyle Okposo tops the team with 10 points.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, ROOT (Pittsburgh), MSG-B (Buffalo)
ABOUT THE PENGUINS (11-4-2): Matt Murray showed no ill effects from the stick to the face that forced him to leave the game against Washington two days earlier, making 20 saves en route to victory on Friday. Chris Kunitz also proved to be healthy as he notched two assists after suffering a lower-body injury in the loss to the Capitals. Pittsburgh is hoping Friday's offensive performance from its blue line is a sign of things to come, as it had received only three goals from its defensemen over the first 16 games of the season.
ABOUT THE SABRES (5-8-4): Buffalo likely will be without second-leading scorer Ryan O'Reilly (nine points) and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov as both players skipped practice on Friday and are considered day-to-day. O'Reilly has missed three straight games with an oblique injury while Kulikov has been sidelined for four contests with a lower back issue. The Sabres trimmed their roster Friday, assigning forwards Nicholas Baptiste (two goals in 12 games) and Evan Rodrigues (no points in two contests) to Rochester of the American Hockey League.
OVERTIME
1. Cody Franson scored the lone goal for the Sabres on Thursday, giving them their first tally by a defenseman this season.
2. Malkin has been kept off the scoresheet in back-to-back contests after notching at least one point in eight of his previous nine games.
3. Buffalo is averaging a league-worst 1.82 goals per game.