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Penguins win 5th in a row

BUFFALO, N.Y. — With goals at a premium Saturday night, the prolific Pittsburgh Penguins proved they can win with a low-scoring, tight-checking approach.

Casey DeSmith stopped 24 shots, and the Penguins handed Buffalo its 10th straight loss with a 3-0 victory over the lowly Sabres.

Jake Guentzel scored the go-ahead goal by batting in his own rebound with 3:23 remaining in the second period. Sidney Crosby, deep from his own end, and Mark Jankowski added empty-netters in the final minute.

“That’s what we’ve got to be. We’ve got to be able to play this kind of game,” said Guentzel, who scored his team-leading 10th goal. “It’s good to find different ways to win. It’s nice to know we can be low-scoring and defend hard.”

The Penguins had scored four or more goals in five of their previous six games.

It was DeSmith’s second shutout against Buffalo and No. 5 for his career. He made 26 stops for the Penguins in a 5-0 win over the Sabres on March 14, 2019.

Pittsburgh completed a two-game sweep of Buffalo following a 5-2 win on Thursday night. The Penguins have won five in a row overall, matching the team’s longest win streak since Oct. 10-18, 2019.

The Sabres dropped to 0-8-2 in their past 10. The winless streak matches the fourth-worst in team history, and the longest since Buffalo dropped a franchise-worst 14 straight midway through the 2014-15 season.

“It’s hard to describe right now, truthfully. I don’t know what’s going on,” said Carter Hutton, who made 31 saves. “We’re in this as a team, right? It’s frustrating. I don’t know if I’ve ever been in this kind of funk at this level. It’s hard to take.”

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