Pittsburgh Penguins vs Buffalo Sabres Match Player Stats On Mar 13, 2021

Goaltender Casey DeSmith stopped all 24 shots he faced, and Jake Guentzel, Sidney Crosby and Mark Jankowski scored to lead the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins to their fifth win in a row, 3-0 over the reeling Buffalo Sabres.

It was the first shutout of the season, fifth of his career and second against Buffalo for DeSmith, who was playing for just the fourth time in the Penguins' past 17 games.

It was the first shutout win this year for Pittsburgh, which also got two assists from Kris Letang.

The Sabres dropped their 10th straight game (0-8-2). They have scored two or fewer goals in eight of those games and been blanked three times in that stretch. It was the fifth time this season they were shut out.

The Penguins swept a two-game set in Buffalo, the first two times the teams have met this year.

Buffalo goaltender Carter Hutton, who entered the game 5-1-0 in his career against the Penguins, stopped 31 shots.

The Sabres remained without team captain Jack Eichel, who missed his third straight game and now is listed as being out for longer because of an undisclosed injury, and played without center Dylan Cozens, who left Thursday's meeting between the two after taking a hit from Pittsburgh's Zach Aston-Reese.

After a slow first period, the game opened up some as the second period progressed.

The Penguins got their first power play when Colin Miller was penalized for hooking Evgeni Malkin late in the second period. It took just 13 seconds to capitalize.

Malkin's shot from the right-wing boards was deflected in front by Guentzel. Hutton stopped it, but the rebound popped up and Guentzel batted it out of the air and past the goalie's blocker to make it 1-0 at 16:37 of the second. His 10th goal of the season gave Guentzel a goal in three straight games following a six-game drought.

Malkin's assist gave him a seven-game points streak.

Crosby added an empty-netter with 52.3 seconds left in regulation, and Jankowski did the same with 15.3 seconds left.

Letang's two assists gave him 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in his past 12 games.

--Field Level Media