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The Sabers finally scored on powerplay

An interesting duel will be played tonight in Pittsburgh, from a statistical point of view. The home Penguins have more shots on goal than any other team in the league (36.7 per meeting), while Buffalo shoot the least (21.2)

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The Pittsburgh Penguins are in very good shape, managing to win three games in a row. First they beat Nashville in an away match with 3-0 and brought upon them their first defeat in the season in regulation time, only to turn the 3-1 falling back against the Devils in just ten minutes to 8-3 in their favor. In the last game they played against the defending champions Kings whom they beat with 3-0.

In that match the Pens beat the Kings thanks to their strongest weapon - the powerplay. The first two goals were scored with an extra player, by Kunitz and Letang. Later Kunitz only confirmed the win, and we should also point out Marc-Andre Fleury's shutout - the second one in the last two games.

- We played against a very strong team. Although they had a couple of absences, they're still the champs and they're still very strong - said Penguins' goalie Marc-Andre Fleury after the last match - he managed to beat off a total of 36 shots.

The Pens shouldn't have trouble against one of the weakest team in the league; they're only missing the less important Bortuzzo and Bennett.

Buffalo lost their second head-to-head meeting with Boston, both of them being played at home with Bruins, but there is a big difference between the two performances. The first one was a convincing defeat, with no goals scored. In the second mutual match they were leading twice and were minutes away from the scalp. More precisely, five and a half minutes when they received a goal for a tie, and then in the over time they held out only for 80 seconds. The scorer was Marchand, Boston's forward who scored both goals for the comeback.

- It's good to win a point against teams such as Boston. We wanted two, but we have to stay positive - said forward Ennis, the scorer and assistant against the Bruins.

Buffalo scored two goals, something they managed to do six matches ago on San Jose's rink. The novelty is that they finally managed to use their powerplay. After 0/33 extra player situations, they finally managed to figure out how to score on it. For the sake of comparison, Pittsburgh's forward Malkin scored eight powerplay goals alone this season...

- It's embarrassing to be that long without any powerplay goal. We tried different combinations and us finally clicking is a good feeling. I hope we'll continue that way - said forward Stewart.

Besides the powerplay, Buffalo's problem is the defense which is, with 36 conceded goals one of the worst in the league. Since the Penguins' offense scored four goals on average, it's clear that Ted Nolan's line-up will be in for a difficult evening. Buffalo had only 15 tries against Buffalo, so it's clear that both of their ends aren't doing to well. They are the last ones in the league by the average number of tries (21.2), and they're heading towards a team who shoots the most in the NHL, 36.7 per meeting.

- We have to aim out shots better. We have to find a way to get through to the goal, but we have to stay positive as well. We're going to Pittsburgh to play 60 minutes maximum, not 40 - announced Ennis who rested on Friday, just as McCormick, but both will make the line-up.

Kaleta was also training, but he's still not ready for the game, as well as Larsson.