The Penguins had some decisions to make with 23 skaters for 18 spots and they came up with some interesting ones. No Blake Lizotte, no Ryan Graves, no Avery Hayes, no Matt Dumba or Ryan Shea.

Pittsburgh struck first in a controversial way when Philip Tomasino got some help and smashed into goalie Alex Lyon and the puck slid into the net along with the two players. No way that counts in the regular season, when the contact happens way before the puck enters the net, but hey, Tomasino got the idea right to take the puck to the paint hard and got rewarded for it.

Buffalo then scored the next three goals of the game. After the third goal, Dan Muse used his timeout and had some words for the team. That was just after the halfway point, the scheduled time to change goalies, but they elected to leave Tristan Jarry in a little longer to not let his preseason end with a sour note.

Harrison Brunicke halved the Buffalo lead by shakin, baking and working his way down the right side of the ice. He lifted a shot off the back of the Lyon’s shoulder and in. 3-2 game.

Sergei Murashov got into the game, but he didn’t fare much better than Jarry. Alex Tuch took a shot from the outside that slipped through Murashov and sat there for Jiri Kulich to tap in. 4-2 game.

The Pens struck on the power play in the third period to draw the score back within one goal. Rickard Rakell slung the puck to the net, possibly in a centering effort but it ended up going in the net just the same.

That was enough to bring on overtime, though it only needed nine seconds to be decided. Crosby won the faceoff and Karlsson took off through the zone. After a few feints, Karlsson fed a great pass across the ice for Crosby to chip home for an easy goal. 5-4 Pens win.

Some more thoughts to close out the preseason game action:

Just like that, the preseason games are over. The Pens practice tomorrow and are off on Sunday and then prep to fly to New York on Monday a day before the season starts, so the whole training camp is virtually done too. We’ll see if the ups and downs from tonight’s game has any influence to change how the lineup looks come Tuesday night in Manhattan.