Tristan Jarry returned to action and made 29 saves while leading the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-2 win over the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday.
Jarry missed the previous seven games because of a lower-body injury.
Mathew Dumba, Bryan Rust, Kevin Hayes and Connor Dewar scored for the Penguins, who won for the first time in three games (1-1-1). Ryan Shea contributed two assists.
Jason Zucker and Jack Quinn each tallied a goal and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 15 saves for the Sabres, who had won two straight.
Dumba gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead at 17:09 of the opening frame. Sabres defenseman Conor Timmins sent a blind backhand pass behind him in the neutral zone, and Dumba intercepted it. The Penguins blueliner then carried it down the right side before stopping at the top of the right circle and firing a wrist shot over Luukkonen’s glove.
The Penguins controlled the play early in the second period but couldn’t add to their lead. Luukkonen stopped a chance from forward Anthony Mantha in the right circle nearly two minutes in, and Hayes’ shot from the left side of the net sailed high.
Stuck on five shots on goal in the game halfway through the middle frame, the Sabres started to create more late and pulled ahead in shots on goal thanks to a shift of over a minute in the Penguins’ zone with under four minutes to go before the second intermission.
Zucker tallied his sixth of the season to tie it 1-1 at 7:20 of the third period. With traffic in front, Quinn took a feed from Ryan McLeod at the top of the slot and wired a wrist shot that Zucker redirected into the goal.
Pittsburgh responded 31 seconds later to regain the lead. Luukkonen stopped a Rust shot, but Rust collected his own rebound and beat the netminder five-hole from the right circle to make it 2-1 at 7:51.
Hayes was in front to direct a feed from Erik Karlsson blocker side at 12:34 to push the margin to 3-1.
Quinn scored for a third straight game and pulled Buffalo within 3-2 at 15:42. Jason Zucker sent a backhand pass from behind the net to Quinn in the slot for a one-timer that beat Jarry glove side.
Dewar scored an empty-net goal at 19:02 for the 4-2 final.
–Field Level Media
