Evgeni Malkin had a goal with an assist as the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins won their fourth in a row, 5-2 over the reeling Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night.

Malkin has three goals and six assists during a six-game point streak for the Penguins, who are 11-0-2 in their past 13 games at Buffalo. His latest assist came on Jake Guentzel's tiebreaking, power-play goal with 8:24 left in the second period to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead.

Anthony Angelo added some insurance for Pittsburgh at 2:43 into the third period with a blast for his first goal of the season. Bryan Rust's empty-netter capped the successful night for the Penguins.

The Sabres, meanwhile, hit iron four times on the night while falling to 0-7-2 since winning at New Jersey on Feb. 23. Tage Thompson and Victor Olofsson scored for Buffalo, which has allowed five goals in each of the last five games and is mired in an 0-6-1 home slide.

Pittsburgh scored 6:27 into the game by taking advantage of a turnover from Buffalo's Casey Mittelstadt just outside the blue line. Kasperi Kapanen (eight points the last six games) picked up the puck and broke away alone before dumping it off to Malkin, who scored to extend his point streak against the Sabres to 13 games.

Buffalo, though, leveled the contest just 27 seconds later. Thompson's aggressive wraparound made it through the legs of Pittsburgh netminder Tristan Jarry (21 saves) for his first goal of 2021.

Pittsburgh's Brandon Tanev broke the 1-1 tie 3:24 into the second period. He took the puck off a board pass from Teddy Blueger, got behind the defense, then put a back-hander past Sabres goalie Jonas Johansson (22 saves).

Again, the Sabres answered in rather quick fashion. Less than 5 1/2 minutes later, Olofsson snapped an eight-game goal drought when he one-timed Riley Sheahan's pass by Jarry from the slot.

Sabres rookie forward Dylan Cozens exited early in the third period after taking a hard hit into the boards.

These teams will meet again Saturday night at Buffalo.

--Field Level Media