Seemingly, ever since franchise icons Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin became professionals, the Penguins have routinely collected points — individually and as a team — against the typically squalid Buffalo Sabres.

So from face value, the Penguins’ 4-3 shootout road loss to the Sabres at KeyBank Center on Wednesday was nothing to celebrate.

Far from it.

But that didn’t dilute any sense of gratitude to at least get a point in the standings.

The Penguins mostly lurched through a listless performance trading goals with the spry but limited Sabres. And were it not for a well-calculated timeout in the third period, the Penguins might not have been able to execute a fundamentally sound tactic leading to a game-tying power-play goal late in the third period to even get the contest beyond the bounds of regulation.

“It was a hard-fought point, but I don’t think we had our best,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said to media in Buffalo. “It was just one of those nights where it was a struggle. But I give our players credit. We competed hard. We scratched and clawed to find a way to get a point. We got a point out of it. We’ve got to take the positives and move on.”

The Penguins will move on across New York state for a highly-anticipated meeting with the New York Rangers in Manhattan on Friday. The long-time rivals are battling it out for position in the Metropolitan Division and could very well be opponents in the first round of the postseason.

“That’s probably going to be the biggest game of the (season) up until now,” Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson said. “It’s a four-point game in the sense that if we get two in regulation, we’re impeding them getting two and it can go a long way to securing home-ice advantage for that possible series.”

The Sabres did quite a bit to impede the Penguins seemingly from the delayed start of Tuesday’s contest, which actually began at 7:45 p.m. despite the NHL advertising it as a 7:30 start.

Out-shooting the Penguins, 11-9, in the first period, the Sabres took a lead at the 17:15 mark. Gaining the offensive zone on the right wing, Sabres forward Tage Thompson, facing resistance from Matheson, pulled up on the half wall and rimmed the puck behind the cage to Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson. From there, Samuelsson dealt to the right circle back to Thompson who roofed a wrister over goaltender Casey DeSmith’s left shoulder on the near side for his 26th goal of the season. Samuelsson, the son of former Penguins defenseman Kjell Samuelsson, had the only assist.

Penguins forward Sidney Crosby wasted little time in tying the game in the second period with a power-play score. To be specific, he wasted all of 26 seconds. After gaining the offensive blue line on the right wing, Penguins forward Bryan Rust snapped a centering pass to Crosby who fired a wrister that clunked through the five hole of goaltender Craig Anderson for Crosby’s 23rd goal. Rust and linemate Jake Guentzel gathered assists.

The Sabres reclaimed a lead, 2-1, at 15:56 of the second. On something of a scrambled sequence, Sabres forward Kyle Okposo claimed a loose puck to the right of the Penguins’ cage and forced a pass to the right circle that Penguins defenseman John Marino intercepted but inadvertently one-touched to Sabres forward Zemgus Girgensons who immediately put a forehand shot past DeSmith’s blocker on the far side for his eighth goal. The lone assist went to Okposo.

Pure and simple luck allowed Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin to tie the game again, 2-2, late in the second period at the 18:46 mark. Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin tried to corral a loose puck in his own right corner but lost it thanks to Rust who backhanded it off the boards to Malkin to the right of the cage. With few options, Malkin simply backhanded the puck to the crease. That tactic resulted in the puck hitting off Anderson’s stick then the left shin of Sabres defenseman Henri Jokiharju and through Anderson’s five hole. Malkin was credited with his 13th goal of the season and the 14,000th goal in franchise history. Rust netted the only assist.

Thompson struck again on a power-play opportunity only 1:01 into the third period. After Sabres forward Jeff Skinner drove the puck deep on the Penguins’ end boards, linemate Alex Tuch claimed possession, emerged to the left of the cage and slipped a forehand pass to the right circle for Thompson who ripped a wrister past a scrambling DeSmith. Tuch and Skinner claimed assists.

After a puck went out of play during a power-play opportunity, the Penguins called a timeout at 14:54 of the third and huddled around the bench as assistant coach Todd Reirden diagrammed a play that appeared to be perfectly executed on the ice.

After Crosby beat Sabres forward Cody Eakin on a draw in Buffalo’s left circle, Guentzel tapped the puck to defenseman Kris Letang at the left point. Maneuvering to the high slot, Letang slid a pass to the left wall for Rust who one-touched the puck to the left corner for Crosby. Settling the puck, Crosby dealt a pass to the opposite corner for Malkin to then tapped it to the right circle, allowing Letang to swipe a slightly awkward one-timer that found an avenue between Anderson’s blocker and torso on the far side for his seventh goal. Malkin and Crosby had assists.

“We wanted to keep our first (power-play) unit on the ice and maybe get a rest,” Letang said of the timeout. “We just drew up a faceoff play and we executed. It went perfectly.”

After a spirited overtime period, the contest moved to a shootout where DeSmith allowed goals to Thompson and Tuch on the three shots he faced. Anderson denied Rust and Guentzel on the only two attempts the Penguins had.

DeSmith finished with 30 saves on 33 shots as his record tumbled to 6-4-4.

“We weren’t as sharp as we could be,” Rust said. “There was a lot of missed plays or things that were just a little bit off, passes that were just a little bit off, guys not quite on the same page. Over the course of the season, those things are going to happen. But I think we still worked hard and we found a way to be in a game when we weren’t at our best which is good.”

Notes:

• In his second game with the Penguins, forward Rickard Rakell enjoyed a handful of shifts on the first line with Crosby and Guentzel. According to Natural Stat Trick, that trio logged 5:13 of common five-on-five ice time and were on the ice for six shots attempts for and two against.

• In two games since the Penguins dealt away penalty-killing forward Zach Aston-Reese to the Anaheim Ducks, Rust has averaged 2:39 of short-handed ice time. Before Aston-Reese’s departure, Rust had averaged 16 seconds of short-handed ice time in his first 41 games of the season.

• Malkin (1,132) surpassed former St. Louis Blues and Detroit Red Wings forward Bernie Federko (1,130) for 59th place on the NHL’s career scoring list. He appeared to pass up Federko during Monday’s 5-1 home win against the Columbus Blue Jackets but a scoring change took away an assist from Malkin.

• Matheson appeared in his 400th career game.

• Penguins defenseman Mark Friedman (healthy) and forward Brock McGinn (suspected right arm or hand) were scratched.

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