UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Penguins' lineup for their exhibition opener against the Sabres this evening looked like something you might see, in well, an exhibition opener.
Which is to say, lots of guys who won't see an NHL game this season unless they have cable TV.
And which means it had very little in common with the group Buffalo brought to Pegula Arena.
The Penguins gave Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Matt Murray -- and most of the other guys who will be on the roster when the regular season opens Oct. 3 -- the evening off. Buffalo, conversely, loaded its lineup with headliners such as Jack Eichel and Jeff Skinner, along with the likes of Rasmus Dahlin, Jimmy Vesey, Conor Sheary and Marco Scandella.
NHL regulations require teams to dress at least eight players who qualify as NHL veterans for exhibition games, and the Penguins complied. Barely. Buffalo, meanwhile, came closer to having eight NHL-caliber players on the ice at all times.
And for the first two periods of what became a 5-4 Buffalo overtime victory, it showed.
The Sabres built a 4-1 lead in the first 36 minutes and held a 37-9 advantage in shots at the second intermission. All of which seemed perfectly reasonable given the disparity in talent and experience each team dressed. (The best reflection of that might have been the Sabres' 18-2 edge in shots during the first 20 minutes.)
But a lot transpired between the first minute of the third period, when Sam Lafferty scored to lift the Penguins within two goals, and the 4:52 mark of overtime, when Jack Eichel rifled a shot past Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry to give the Sabres the victory.
And most of it was encouraging for the Penguins, who not only forced overtime but had a few chances to win during the extra period.
"Our guys battled hard," Mike Sullivan said. "I was really happy for them in the third period. We got a lot of juice. We scored a couple of goals. You could see the excitement on the bench. I was really pleased with the fight. I thought our guys played pretty hard against a real strong lineup."
Now, nobody did anything during those final 20-plus minutes, let alone the 40 before them, to bull his way onto the major-league roster. But a lot of guys who will be back in junior hockey or the minors before long learned that they're capable of competing effectively against NHL-caliber opponents.
"We could have fought even better if we started a little more fearless from the beginning," Dominik Simon said. "Because we could play with them."
Not that it showed for most of the first two periods, when the Sabres operated at will all over the ice.
"We had a lot of guys who hadn't played in an exhibition game, a lot of new guys who were just getting the hang of it, getting a feel for it," Jarry said. "By the end of it, we played a good team game."
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