As snow fell heavily all over the east coast, a Fleury fell in Buffalo – a Marc-Andre Fleury. And it was mightier than any snow storm. Stopping 31 of 32 saves in 65 minutes of regulation plus over time, the Penguins net minder added two more in the shoot out to earn his 21st win of the season the hard way. Yeah, his saves were not always pretty and a handful were just down right lucky but Fleury put himself in that possition to be lucky all night long as the Sabres peppered him with shots and crashed the net regularly.

If Fleury has not secured his spot on Team Canada for the Olympics as at least the back up then something is oh so very wrong.

Despite a face paced second and third period with Pittsburgh and Buffalo each traded rushes up the ice it was the first period where both teams scored their lone regulation goals. Jason Pominville (8) buried a rebound off Fluery’s pad at 15:05 and Chris Kunitz (4) wristed a shot past Lalime with less than a minute to go.

In the shootout Kris Letang buried his chance to put the Penguins up 1-0 after Fleury stood tall at the other end of the ice. Then, a little controversy as on Crosby’s shot, Lalime went nearly entirely into the net with the puck somewhere on or under his body. The Buffalo goal tender shimmied quickly out of the the net and the puck dropped outside the line. No review was called or needed as Fleury stopped both the prior shot and the shot afterwards to end the game.

Buffalo, who leads the Northeast Division, was a good test for the Penguins who had just come off two bruising victories against the lowly Philadelphia Flyers. The Penguins are now 25-10-1 (51 pts) and just behind the New Jersey Devils, also 51 pts but who have two games in hand in the Atlantic. Both teams will square off Monday night in Pittsburgh for a showdown.

Notes:
The Penguins power play, which had shown signs of life lately, was 0-5 despite some good chances.

With the win in Buffalo, Pittsburgh is currently riding a 5 game winning streak after starting the month 1-1-1.

Pittsburgh’s troubles in December continued last night as they struggled against the Sabres in Buffalo. Sure, it was a road game and road games are supposed to be tough, but the Sabres are in 8th place in the East and even though the Penguins are in seventh, they are much better than that.

The troubles started just 1 minute into the game as Paille (4) scored to put the Sabres up 1-0. It stayed that way until 5:23 of the second when Kotalik (8) extended that lead to 2-0. The Penguins answered however just 55 seconds later as Orpik found Satan breaking into the Buffalo zone. He then fed Dupuis charging the net and he buried the puck for his 7th goal of the season. Alex Goligoski then tied the game with his 5th at 12:23 but Buffalo scored on the power play about three and a half minutes later to regain the lead. Fleury was forced to face 15 shots in the second and stood tall against the barrage despite the two goals allowed.

At the half way mark of the third period, Buffalo gave the Penguins their only power play of the game and they responded. Goligoski (6) let fly a horrific wrister that went in under the crossbar to tie the game.

Then in overtime the Penguins took the play to Sabres. In the Sabres end, Goligoski fed Malkin who threw a puck high and wide. Crosby lifted his stick and batted the puck down and into the cage. Despite a review and protests from the Sabres that the puck was hit by a high stick, replays clearly showed that Crosby’s lumber was at the height of the crossbar and the goal was allowed after a discussion.

Fleury held the Penguins in the game in the third facing another 13 shots and ended up stopping 32-35 while the Penguins need to give their net minders a little more support. In the game the Penguins managed only 22 total shots including a pathetic 6 in the second period and anemic 3 in the third.

The win moved the Penguins to 18-11-4 (40 pts) on the season heading into tonight’s contest against the Tampa Bay Lightning (7-16-9).