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Sabres in rare position of rebounding from loss

Nov 17, 2006 - 2:58 PM Pittsburgh (8-6-2) at Buffalo (15-2-1) 8:00 pm EST

BUFFALO, New York (Ticker) - The Buffalo Sabres have not been in the position of having to rebound from a loss too often this season.

But Buffalo faces that challenge when it hosts the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.

The Sabres come off a rare loss, a 4-2 defeat at the hands of the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday. Daniel Briere and Thomas Vanek scored the goals for Buffalo, which was blanked in six power-play opportunities.

Vanek is having a terrific year, and has shown why Buffalo took him with the fifth selection in the 2003 draft. The left wing has 11 goals and 12 assists in 18 games this season.

The Penguins started off well this season, but have slowed up lately in losing four of their last five games.

Pittsburgh is coming off a victory, a 3-2 triumph over the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday.

Once again, young stars Jordan Staal, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby came through. All three tallied, with Malkin netting the game-winner with just 2:03 left in the third period off a setup from Crosby and Mark Recchi.