Avery Hayes lit the lamp twice in an unforgettable NHL debut as the Pittsburgh Penguins put a stop to their two-game losing streak with a 5-2 road victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.
Fellow rookie Ben Kindel also found the back of the net twice for the Penguins. Pittsburgh’s Tommy Novak added a goal, and Arturs Silovs made 27 saves.
Tage Thompson tallied his 30th goal of the season and Jason Zucker scored early for the Sabres, who are 1-2-1 in their past four games.
Alex Lyon stopped 27 of the 31 shots he faced in the Sabres’ crease.
Zucker scored against his former team on the first shot of the night as he made a move around a defenseman and sent it into the top corner 1:46 into the contest.
Hayes scored a beauty on his first career shot. He sped around a defender to pick up a loose puck and fired it past Lyon to knot the contest at 1-1 with 10:42 left in the first period.
The undrafted 23-year-old Michigan native continued his dominant debut as he scored again with 1:13 left in the opening frame. He took a between-the-legs no-look pass from Anthony Mantha and sent his one-timer into the top shelf to make it 2-1.
Kindel boosted the margin to 3-1 with 12:16 left in the middle frame as the 18-year-old came roaring down on a 2-on-1 and picked the top corner.
Thompson sniped from a short angle on the power play to cut the deficit to 3-2 with 18:05 left in the third.
Silovs made his biggest save of the night with just over 11 minutes remaining. Thompson used his big frame to power past a defender, but the Penguins’ netminder read the superstar’s move and denied him of his potential second goal of the contest.
Novak extended the lead to 4-2 as the puck bounced out to him on the doorstep and he made no mistake with 4:27 left.
Kindel buried his second of the game into an empty net with 14 seconds left and the Penguins short-handed.
