Sabres Blog: Die by the Blade

The first period showed promise. The second was bland and the third gave the Pens all they needed to officially pull out the team's 12th straight win.

Even though Sid didn't score a goal in the win, he did register an assist on Alex Goligoski's third period goal to extend his personal point streak to 18 straight games.

Dustin Jeffrey showed that his scoring abilities weren't left behind in Wilkes-Barre as he picked up the Pens' first goal of the night. Good on him, but unfortunately his recent call up means tehchico and I won't have the privilege of seeing him play tomorrow against the Albany River Rats. Drag brah.

Happy to see Arron Asham pick up his fourth of the year as well. I know it's still too early to tell, but it'd be nice to see Asham pose as last year's Mike Rupp, whereas he finds an all-new scoring touch in his first year with a team. While his career high might be pretty steep at this stage in the game (15), nothing is stopping him from making a run at it.

Speaking of the Noted One, Rupp picked up his fourth of the season and helped put the game out of reach late in the fourth. Since November 10th against the Bruins, Rupp has averaged less than 10 minutes per game, and tonight's total of 8 minutes and 55 seconds of ice time falls right under the umbrella. However, in that same span of 15 games he's notched two goals and two assists, slightly better than his one goal and two assists over the first 15 minutes of the season when he was averaging over 10 minutes per. If that's what it's going to take, then so be it.

Marc-Andre Fleury's 34-save performance also makes it his ninth-straight game in which he's allowed fewer than two goals. He's now 13-0-1 since getting yanked against the Coyotes on November 6th.

Next game is Tuesday against the Flyers, a team that is 4-0-1 in their last five.