Apr 11, 2002 3 min read

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Miroslav Satan scored twice and the Buffalo Sabres squandered a pair of two-goal leads, but still ran the Pittsburgh Penguins’ winless streak to eight with a 4-4 tie Wednesday night. Buffalo is 5-0-2 in its last seven games, but lost any chance to reach the playoffs when the Montreal Canadiens clinched the Eastern Conference’s eighth and final spot Tuesday night.

The Penguins, headed for their worst season in 17 years, are 0-6-1-1 since beating Washington 6-2 on March 24, their longest such streak since losing nine in a row in 1984-85 – Mario Lemieux’s first season.

Pittsburgh (28-39-8-5), which probably lost any hope for the playoffs when Lemieux sat out the final six weeks of the season with a hip injury, must win its final two games to finish with 30 victories. The Penguins haven’t won fewer than 30 in a full season since finishing 24-51-5 in 1984-85.

The Penguins’ 16-19-4-1 home record also is their worst since that season, when they went 17-20-3.

Less than a year after the Sabres and Penguins played a tense, exciting playoff series – Pittsburgh won the second-round series on a Game 7 overtime goal by Darius Kasparaitis – their game Wednesday more resembled an exhibition.

With a small and mostly quiet crowd watching, the Penguins didn’t draw a single penalty, and Buffalo had only one in each period.

Buffalo seemed ready to win easily after Satan and Richard Smehlik scored to make it 2-0 in the first period, with Penguins goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin barely throwing up his glove to offer any resistance to Smehlik’s rebound goal at 11:54.

But the Penguins, in danger of ending the season with a 10-game losing streak that would be their longest since a franchise-record 11-game run in 1982-83, tied it on goals by Kris Beech and Alexei Kovalev.

Chris Gratton restored Buffalo’s lead by going to the net to get his stick on a shot off Taylor Pyatt’s drive at 9:26 of the second for his ninth goal in 19 games. Satan made it 4-2 later in the period with his 35th goal and eighth in eight games, also off one of Pyatt’s three assists.

But the Penguins, playing for little but self-respect for several weeks, again bounced back from two goals down to tie it against Martin Biron on third-period goals by Randy Robitaille and Jeff Toms. Toms’ tying goal came at 13:01.

Johan Hedberg replaced Aubin with 12:54 remaining in the third period and shut out the Sabres the rest of the way, making nine saves.

Ville Nieminen had a good chance to win it in overtime, only to miss a wide-open net by shooting wide. Biron had gone to the other side of the goal to play a shot, and couldn’t get back in time to defend.

NOTES: Dan LaCouture is the only Pittsburgh player to play in all 80 games. … Biron had a 1.38 goals-against average in his previous four games. … The Penguins are 28-35-8-5 under coach Rick Kehoe. They lost their first four under former coach Ivan Hlinka.