After the Sabres tilted the ice late in the second period on Wednesday night, the Penguins needed a response. It wasn’t all that dissimilar from their season to this point: 8-2-2 in October and seven losses in nine November games prior to this one.

Bryan Rust and Kevin Hayes offered the Penguins some important answers during the annual Thanksgiving Eve affair, scoring key third-period goals amid a scoring flurry that propelled Pittsburgh to a 4-2 victory against Buffalo at PPG Paints Arena.

Twenty-nine seconds after Jack Quinn scored on a shot that it looked like Jason Zucker deflected, Rust turned and slid a shot from the right circle that sailed through Buffalo goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen’s legs.

Great job by Rust sticking with his shot and weaving round defenseman Bowen Byram for

See Full Page