Jiri Kulich made twice for Buffalo Sabers in a 7-3 victory against the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday evening.
Tage Thompson, Peyton Krebs, Tyson Kozak and Alex Tuch each had a goal and an assist. Defender Bowen Byram and Rasmus Dahlin each had two assists, and James Reimer made 22 rescues for Sabers (30-35-6, 66 points), which has won five out of seven.
Sidney Crosby did to set an NHL record with its 20th season on average at least one point per match. Blake Lizotte and Kevin Hayes also scored for Penguins (29-34-11, 69 points), who have dropped three in a row.
Tristan Jarry stopped eight of 12 shots for Pittsburgh before being replaced by Alex Nedeljkovic, who ended with 15 rescues.
Buffalo did 27 seconds in the match when the Thompson Tå pull over the track on a 2-against-1 before scoring his 36th goal for the season for a 1-0 lead.
Krebs did a redirect to extend the lead to 2-0 at 4:44 by the first.
Crosby fired the puck in the net from the track to cut it to 2-1 at 11:11 and record their 80th points in their 72nd match this season. He passed the Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky during the most seasons on average one game.
The sabers came back with five straight goals during the second period.
Kulich made a one-hour from left hash marks at 3:36.
Mattias Samuelsson made a wrist shot from the right circle to make it 4-1 at 5:20 and ended Jarry’s evening.
Kulich greeted Alex Nedeljkovic with a wrist shot from the left circle for a 5-1 lead at 11:34.
Kozak made a recovery to do it 6-1 at 12:02, and Tuch covered the second period with a wrist shot from the inner edge of the left circle for a 7-1 lead with 26 seconds left.
Lizotte was credited with a goal after he dropped at the puck in the fold and it went off Dahlin’s skate and into his own net and cut it to 7-2 at 2:16 of the third.
Hayes redirected a puck in the net to make it 7-3 at 13:54.
-Field level media
