Penguins continue to roll extending winning streak to 12 games

Pittsburgh 5 – Buffalo 2

In a tough battled tested game, the Pittsburgh Penguins and Sidney Crosby keep on streaking in Buffalo.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 34 saves to lead the Penguins to their 12th straight victory, a 5-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.

Crosby collected a third period assist on Alex Goligoski’s goal at the 12:09 mark to extend his points streak to 18 games, one game short of matching his career best of 19.

Crosby has 20 goals and 16 assists during his points streak and pushed his points total to 51 points in 31 games.

Fleury was excellent early on making several key saves and Pittsburgh jumped out to a 1-0 first period lead on an opening goal by Dustin Jeffrey at the 6:43 mark of the first.

Jeffrey making his season debut, scored on his second shift of the game on a complete all around play.

Jeffrey helped create a turnover in the neutral zone, then won a puck battle in the corner to win puck possession that eventually led to Ben Lovejoy setting Jeffrey up in front for a redirection goal.

Minutes later, Arron Asham who probably has the hardest slap shot on the team, blasted one past Ryan Miller his 4th goal of the season, pushing Pittsburgh’s lead to 2-0.

Leading 2-1 in the third period, Alex Goligoski and Michael Rupp scored 4:34 apart in the third to seal the victory in a game the Penguins never trailed. Matt Cooke scored an empty net goal to push the Penguins lead to 5-2.

Tyler Ennis and Jason Pominville scored for the Sabres (12-14-4). Ryan Miller made 19 saves in the loss and continues to struggle against Pittsburgh. Miller came into tonight’s game with a 4-6-3 record with a 3.22 GAA, and .884 save percentage all-time against Pittsburgh.

10 different Penguins recorded points in the win and 4th liners Dustin Jeffrey (1G-1A) and Craig
Adams (2A) led the way with two points each. With Jeffrey and Cooke scoring, who snapped an 11 game goal less streak, 16 players have scored on the Penguins 17 game winning streak.

With the win, the Penguins (21-8-2) have maintained their lead atop the NHL standings and matched a franchise-best by winning their seventh consecutive road game.

Fleury extended his career-best win streak to 11 and hasn’t given up more than two goals in his past nine games. He is 13-0-1 in his last 14 games.

Pittsburgh was outshot 36-24 in the game. They were 0-for-4 on the power play.

Pittsburgh was 36-for-55 on faceoffs. Max Talbot and Sidney Crosby each had a team-high 11 faceoff wins.

The Penguins scratched forwards Eric Godard (healthy), Evgeni Malkin (knee) and Deryk Engelland (healthy).

Malkin is looking to return Tuesday night against Philadelphia.