In their first game following the Olympics break, the Penguins slipped past the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2, tonight at Mellon Arena.

The Penguins got the only goal of the first period.

Sergei Gonchar's blast from the center point during a power play gave him his 200th career goal and gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead at 14:58.

The Penguins increased their lead to 2-0 at 3:23 of the second period when Pascal Dupuis slid in from the left side just above the goal line and one-timed a pass through the slot from Ruslan Fedotenko into the near side of the net.

The Sabres pulled to within 2-1 at 6:44 of the second period when Toni Lydman scored off of a drop pass from Patrick Kaleta.

Fedotenko gave the Penguins some breathing room when he scored from near the top of the left circle at 11:03 of the third period to make it 3-1, and they needed that because Buffalo's Derek Roy lifted a backhander just under the crossbar to make it 3-2 at 14:21 of the third period.

The Penguins (37-22-4) next play Thursday on the road against the New York Rangers.

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