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Could the East go through the Buffalo Sabres (37-19-6, 80 pts) this spring? The Sabres continue to look everything of the real deal in a 5-1 thrashing of the Pittsburgh Penguins (31-17-13, 75 pts) on Thursday night @ PPG Paints Arena. Ryan McLeod and Alex Tuch each scored short-handed goals for Buffalo, while Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 26 shots as the Sabres are neck-and-neck with the Tampa Bay Lightning for first in the Atlantic Division.

For Pittsburgh, Arturs Silovs stopped 21 shots in the loss, while Bryan Rust was Pittsburgh’s lone goal scorer in netting his 21st of the season on beautiful shorthanded goal. The big news of the night for Pittsburgh was a likely Evgeni Malkin suspension. Malkin was given a major penalty for slashing Rasmus Dahlin in the head area at 38 seconds of the second period. Malkin has been suspended twice in his career.

#’s: The Penguins are 0-for-7 on goaltender interference challenges this season