To relieve Sidney Crosby’s pressure, Brian Boyle, Danton Hisen, and Zach Aston–Reese scored. Tristan Jarry stopped 41 shots, and the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2.
Crosby was unable to score a goal to make it to the 20-goal plateau. The Penguins defeated the Metropolitan Division-leading Hurricanes in the final game. This was partly due to the lack of secondary scoring in recent weeks.
Ron Hextall, Pittsburgh’s general manager, urged his players to reach the net to help them shake off the funk. Boyle and Heinen scored from 6 feet apart, while Aston-Reese’s tap-in empty-netter with 12 second left sealed the deal.
Brett Pesce got his fifth goal of the season, and Sebastian Aho added 27. However, Carolina lost in regulation for only the second time in its 12 previous games (9-2-1). Antti Raanta had 19 saves but couldn’t stop the two goals he allowed in.
SABRES 5, MAPLE LAFS 2
HAMILTON (Ontario) — Vinnie Hinostroza scored two goals and had an assist. Peyton Krebs also scored twice. Buffalo beat Toronto in the Heritage Classic outdoor match.
Craig Anderson was the saver in the Sabres’ win at Tim Horton Field, the home of the CFL Hamilton Tiger-Cats. This was the first NHL regular season game in Hamilton since March 1994.
Auston Matthews, Toronto’s NHL-leading goal scorer, scored his 45th goal. Ondrej Kase scored a second goal. Petr Mrazek saved 31.
Hinostroza broke a tie with a shot at the corner from a sharp angle at 5:16 in the third period, his 10th of this season.
Crews had to remove snow from the ice several times before warmups. However, flurries subsided as the game started in front of a sold-out crowd of 26,119. During the game, temperatures felt like 19 degrees.
The Leafs wore dark blue jerseys to pay tribute to the Toronto Arenas, one of the franchise’s earlier iterations that played between 1917 and 1919. While the Sabres wore cream colored threads.
