Other than Evgeni Malkin's 500th goal, nothing goes as planned in Penguins' OT win over Sabres

Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin had a couple of goals in mind as he entered his 19th season in the NHL

Literally.

With 498 career goals on his resume to open the 2023-24 season, Malkin wanted to reach that barrier of 500 which seems to vault a superstar into a certain level of the mesosphere as an NHL luminary.

But he certainly didn’t want to stop there.

“I don’t want to be here the next two years and just play my game, just score 500 goals and do nothing after,” Malkin said Sept. 19 in Cranberry. “I want to be here to win.”

Malkin and the Penguins did just that on Wednesday at PPG Paints Arena. But they did not achieve that desired result as planned in a delirious mess of a 6-5 overtime victory against the Buffalo Sabres.

When the starting goaltender is pulled after allowing three goals before the second television stoppage, nothing has gone as designed.

And when a pair of franchise colonnades reach career milestones, only to see a ho-hum outfit like the Sabres fight back to reclaim a lead late in regulation, the charted course has not been followed.

Finally, when a last-minute goal in regulation and an overtime score are required to secure two points, luck and desperation are responsible for triumph as much as precision and discipline, if not more so.

Regardless of the reasons, the Penguins had plenty to celebrate Wednesday. And plenty to mull over.

“Just really happy for (Malkin), obviously, for him to get his 500th (goal) and just to get the win,” said captain Sidney Crosby, who scored in overtime. “That was a wild one. Early in the season, we’ve got to find ways to still learn from these. But for him to get it the way he got it and to find a way to win it, that was huge.”

Also huge these days is the goals-against average of starting goaltender Tristan Jarry (5.47).

After allowing the Sabres to score three goals on five shots in only 11:33 of action, he was pulled from the crease in favor of promising prospect Joel Blomqvist.

“It was just a tough start for our whole team, quite honestly,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “I don’t think it was even close to our best game out there. We just felt like, given the way the game started, that it was the right thing to make the switch. I think Tristan was a victim of that to a certain extent. He was also part of that to a certain extent.

“That’s one of the reasons we made the switch to (Blomqvist), but it was a tough start for the whole team.”

Blomqvist recorded the victory and improved his record to 2-1-0 after making 26 saves on 28 shots, including a few that looked as though they were part of a breakway competition for the Sabres during the second period.

“A lot of things happened in the game,” Blomqvist said. “But it was fun that it ended up (as) a win for us.”

The fun came early and often for the visitors as the Sabres needed all of 43 seconds to open the scoring when forward Tage Thompson scored his third goal of the season off a clumsy turnover by Jarry.

After stopping a dump-in by the Sabres on his own end boards, Jarry failed to sense a forechecking Thompson and lost possession. As Jarry scrambled to return to the crease, Thompson jostled the puck away from linemate Alex Tuch as well as Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson and chopped a backhander from the right side of the cage past Jarry’s left skate. Tuch had the only assist.

Sabres forward Jordan Greenway found a more conventional way of scoring by simply shooting a puck past Jarry’s glove for his second goal at 3:08 of the opening period.

Following a neutral zone turnover by Karlsson, former Penguins forward Jason Zucker collected the puck near the Penguins’ bench and backhanded it off the far boards. The carom eluded Karlsson, as did Greenway, who zoomed past the defenseman, claimed possession and lifted a seemingly pedestrian wrister to the far side that clunked off the underside of Jarry’s glove and deflected into the cage. The only assist went to Zucker.

Forward Bryan Rust’s first goal at 11:01 of the first period got the Penguins on the scoreboard during a power-play sequence.

After gaining the offensive zone on the left wing, Rust backhand-tapped a pass to the top of the left circle for Crosby, who left a drop pass for Malkin. Sliding Sabres forward Zach Benson managed to block the initial shot but couldn’t prevent Malkin from firing another wrister off the rebound from the slot. Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen denied Malkin but permitted a rebound to the left of the cage where Rust bodied the puck to the ice and swept in an easy forehand shot. Malkin and Crosby claimed assists. For Crosby, it was his 1,600th career point.

The jubilation from that accomplishment lasted all of 32 seconds when Sabres forward JJ Peterka beat Jarry for his first goal.

Off something of a two-on-one rush against Penguins defenseman Jack St. Ivany, Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram fed a subtle forehand pass from the right circle to the left circle for Peterka, who lasered a wrister by Jarry’s blocker on the near side. Byram and forward Alex Tuch tallied assists while Jarry found a seat on the bench.

Penguins forward Drew O’Connor scored the team’s first short-handed goal of the season (and his second overall) at 9:12 of the second frame during a four-on-three scenario.

After hounding Sabres forward Dylan Cozens into a turnover at the right point of the Penguins’ zone, Penguins forward Noel Acciari initiated a two-on-one rush with O’Connor against Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. Taking a backhand pass from Acciari, O’Connor chugged into the offensive zone on the right wing, considered dealing it back to Acciari for a moment then ripped a wrister by Luukkonen’s glove on the near side. The lone assist went to Acciari.

“A four-on-three (sequence) and there’s a lot of space out there,” O’Connor said. “(Acciari) made an unbelievable play to kind of take the guy out of the way and win the puck and get it on over to me. … Just kind of had some room to shoot it.”

The Sabres issued a coach’s challenge on the basis of the sequence being offside but officials found no evidence of any malfeasance and gave the visitors a delay of game penalty.

Penguins forward Jesse Puljujarvi tied the game in spectacular fashion with his first goal at 15:20 of the second period.

Entering the offensive zone on the left wing, Penguins forward Lars Eller drew in Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson and chipped a pass to open ice in the crease where Puljujarvi took possession on his forehand, moved to his backhand and flicked a shot by Luukkonen’s blocker in a display that looked as if it belonged on TikTok. Eller and O’Connor claimed assists.

“The goal was a goal-scorer’s goal,” Sullivan said. “And he’s had a few of them. He had one in the (preseason) on a breakaway that I felt was a goal-scorer’s goal also.”

A would-be goal by Rust 39 seconds into the third period was nullified after officials deemed there to be goaltender interference during the sequence.

Malkin scored his 500th goal in valid fashion at 3:26 of the third frame.

As a power-play opportunity expired, Crosby flicked a backhand pass from the Sabres’ end boards to the front of the crease, where Malkin fanned on a forehand shot as he fell to the ice. Recovering the puck while on his backside, Malkin shuffled in another forehand shot over goaltender Lukkonen’s right leg. Crosby had the only assist.

His teammates poured off the bench to celebrate with Malkin in the left corner of the offensive zone.

“I just start celebrating and (Rust) hugged me quick,” Malkin said. “I see guys jump on ice, but probably, I know that, because it’s tradition probably.

“The game’s not perfect. I (did not) want to lose this game tonight.”

The Sabres did just about everything they could to force that result.

First, Peterka scored again at 10:16 of the third period to tie the game, 4-4.

From his own end boards, Sabres defenseman Henri Jokiharju cleared a puck down ice, allowing Peterka to rush into the Penguins’ zone on the right wing. With Penguins defenseman Kris Letang hustling to catch up, Peterka approached the cage from a deep angle and wired a wrister over Blomqvist’s right shoulder on the far side. Jokiharju netted the only assist.

Sabres forward Ryan McLeoud’s first goal reclaimed the lead only 40 seconds later.

Accepting a pass at the left point, McLeod sauntered in to the top of the left circle and fired a wrister through traffic to the far side past Blomqvist’s glove. Byram and Zucker had assists.

Blomqvist was pulled late in regulation for an extra attacker and that ploy resulted in forward Rickard Rakell’s third goal at 19:14 of the third period.

Taking a pass at the center point of the offensive zone, Karlsson offloaded the puck to the right circle where Malkin boomed a one-timer that Luukkonen rejected. A rebound trickled free behind him in the blue paint and Rakell and Rust each appeared to make contact with the puck, directing into the cage. Rakell was credited with the score off assists from Rust and Malkin.

“To be honest, I don’t know,” Rust chortled when asked if he touched the puck last before it crossed the goal line. “The puck went in. That’s all I care about.”

Crosby put another puck in at 1:38 of the extra period during a power-play sequence for his first goal of the season.

From above the Sabres’ right circle, Malkin zipped a cross-ice pass to the opposite circle for Karlsson, who then one-touched the puck by the stick of Sabres defenseman Connor Clifton and to the far side of the crease where Crosby re-directed in a forehand shot — off assists from Karlsson and Malkin — and gave his team the most important cause to celebrate.

“You’ve just got to stay with it,” Crosby said. “We understood that it was just a weird one. Some of those nights, you can’t explain. It’s just a really odd game with the ebbs and flows of it and the way that it worked out there in the third. We stayed with it, we kept working and understood that if it is one of these nights, you’ve got to still find a way to win them.

“It’s a good experience for us. We’ve got to find a way to cut down on giving up the chances that we’re giving and be a little tighter defensively. But it’s way more fun when you find a way to win those and learn from them that way.”

For nearly two decades, the Penguins have learned they can typically rely on a pair of superstars to steer them right, even if the course isn’t what was planned.

“Hockey is a great game,” Malkin said. “You can pass, you can score, you can hit – everything. It’s not an easy game. We play, me and Sid, 19 years. We try to be the best every year. Some days we’re not our best, but we try every night, every game.”

Notes:

• Malkin leads the NHL in scoring with 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in five games.

• Malkin now has 73 career points (22 goals, 51 assists) in 54 games against the Sabres.

• Crosby now has 85 career points (29 goals, 56 assists) in 60 games against the Sabres.

• Rakell (113 points) surpassed forward Shawn McEachern (112) for 80th place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• The Penguins’ last overtime win against the Sabres was a 4-3 victory on Dec. 9, 2022. Forward Jeff Carter scored the winning goal.

• Attendance was listed as 15,644. Seated capacity at PPG Paints Arena for hockey is 18,187.