Despite dressing a lineup that had more pockmarks than one might find in February during the 221-mile drive between the Steel City and the Nickel City, the Pittsburgh Penguins claimed a 5-2 victory against the Buffalo Sabres at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y. on Thursday as they entered the NHL’s break for the Olympics.

With various health-related concerns — injury, illness and birth — perforating their forward depth like a train ticket, the Penguins were buoyed by rookie forward Avery Hayes, who scored a pair of goals in his NHL debut, a handful of hours after being recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.

“It was a ton of fun,” Hayes said to reporters in Buffalo via audio provided by the Penguins’ media relations department. “It was a moment I’ll remember forever.”

Hayes’ presence was required as incumbent forwards Noel Acciari, Blake Lizotte and Rickard Rakell were all sidelined.

Speaking with reporters in Buffalo following the morning skate, coach Dan Muse indicated Rakell suffered an undisclosed ailment during the skate and is considered day to day.

Acciari was scratched due to illness while Lizotte took a leave of absence to attend to his wife, Abby, who was expecting the couple’s first child. Procedurally, Lizotte was designated as nonroster to make room on the active roster for Hayes according to Puckpedia.

Thursday’s result snapped a modest two-game losing streak (0-1-1) for the Penguins, who beat a surging Sabres squad that entered the day having won 21 of its past 27 games (21-4-2). Rookie goaltender Artus Silovs made 26 saves on 28 shots, boosting his record to 11-7-8.

Things got off to a rough start for the visitors as ex-Penguins forward Jason Zucker’s 15th goal opened the scoring 106 seconds into regulation.

Sabres defenseman Bowen Byram forced Penguins forward Egor Chinakhov into a turnover near the center red line, allowing Sabres forward Ryan McLeod to claim possession and offload a pass to Zucker. Gaining the offensive zone on the left wing, Zucker went a bit wide on Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea and released a wrister from the near circle. The puck beat Silovs’ glove on the far side, clunked off the post and entered the cage. McLeod and Byram had assists.

Hayes became the 24th player in franchise history to score his first career goal on his first shot at 9:18 of the first period.

Penguins forward Rutger McGroarty won a faceoff in the right circle in the defensive zone and directed the puck to the near corner. That allowed defenseman Ilya Solovyov to collect the puck and chip it up ice. The puck bounced past Sabres defenseman Jacob Bryson and to the far blue line. Hayes overwhelmed Bryson with hustle and created something of a breakaway. Fending off Bryson, Hayes snapped a wrister past goaltender Alex Lyon’s blocker. Solovyov and McGroarty merited assists.

Hayes struck again late in the first frame at the 18:47 mark.

From his own left corner, Sabres forward Tage Thompson tried to bank a pass off the near boards to forward Josh Doan but was off the mark. Penguins defenseman Parker Wotherspoon wound up with the puck at the left point and chopped it forward to the end boards. The puck deflected to the left of the cage where Penguins forward Anthony Mantha gathered it then slipped a dazzling backhanded pass between his own skates as well as the skates of Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson to a trailing Hayes, who fired a wrister from the lower rim of the left circle past Lyon’s glove on the far side. Mantha and Wotherspoon were worthy of assists.

“So happy for him,” Silovs said of Hayes. “That’s amazing.”

Ben Kindel maintained the theme of Penguins rookie forwards finding goals with his 13th score at 7:44 of the second period.

After Thompson won a draw in the Penguins’ right circle, Bryson wound up with the puck at the near point but lost possession due to pressure from Kindel, who accepted the charity and generated a two-on-one rush with linemate Justin Brazeau against Sabres defenseman Michael Kesselring. Gaining the Sabres’ zone on the left wing, Kindel’s body language suggested he would pass to Brazeau, but he elected to shoot, roofing a wrister past Lyon’s blocker on the near side. There were no assists.

Thompson made amends for his earlier error with his team-leading 30th goal 115 seconds into the third period during a power-play sequence.

Accepting a pass on the Penguins’ left half-wall, Sabres forward Jack Quinn dished the puck low to the left of the cage for Thompson. With Silovs hugging the post, Thompson lasered a bad-angle shot through a keyhole-narrow opening between the right side of Silovs’ mask and the iron. Quinn and defenseman Rasmus Dahlin had assists.

Featured Local Businesses

More local businesses

Penguins forward Tommy Novak helped secure victory with his 11th goal at 15:33 of the final frame.

Under pressure from forechecking Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin, Byram turned the puck over from his own right corner and yielded it to Chinahkov above the near circle. Navigating his way to the left point, Chinakhov snapped a wrister toward the far side of the crease. After Byram blocked the shot, the rebound sat loose to the right of the blue paint, where Novak was able to flip a backhander over Lyon’s left leg. Assists were claimed by Chinakhov and Malkin.

Kindel capped the scoring with a short-handed score on an empty net at 19:46 of the third period. Linemate Connor Dewar had the only assist.

Notes:

• Hayes became the 596th player to score a regular season goal for the Penguins.

• The last Penguins player to score a goal on his first career shot was forward Kasper Bjorkqvist. He scored his only career goal in an 8-5 home win against the San Jose Sharks, Jan. 2, 2022.

• The complete list of 24 players from PittsburghHockey.net:

• Hayes became the third player in franchise history to score two goals in his NHL debut. He was preceded by forward Jake Guentzel (in a 5-2 home loss to the New York Rangers, Dec. 20, 2014) and Rob Brown (in a 5-4 home win, Oct. 21, 1987).

• Hayes became the seventh player in NHL history to score multiple goals in the first period of his NHL debut. He was preceded by:

• Toronto Arenas defenseman Harry Cameron, Dec. 19, 1917

• Montreal Wanderers forward Harry Hyland, Dec. 19, 1917

• Montreal Canadiens forward Joe Malone, Dec. 19, 1917

• Philadelphia Flyers forward Al Hill, Feb. 14, 1977

• Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews, Oct. 12, 2016

• Guentzel, Nov. 21, 2016

For perspective, Cameron, Hyland and Malone all accomplished their feats on the very first day of games in the NHL’s history as a new league, which only had four teams at the time. All three players were veterans who had played in the precursor to the NHL, the National Hockey Association.

Malone scored twice in a 7-4 win against the original Ottawa Senators club at a venue simply known as “The Arena” in Ottawa.

As for Cameron and Hyland, they racked up their offense during a defensively deficient 10-9 win by the Wanderers at the Montreal Arena. Hyland scored three goals in the first period and five goals total in the game.

• Hayes became the second player to wear No. 85 in a game of consequence for the Penguins. His predecessor was forward Petr Klima.

• Hayes became the 12th rookie to play for the Penguins this season.

• Penguins forward Kevin Hayes — no relation — returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the previous 11 games.

• Avery and Kevin Hayes became the fourth set of unrelated teammates with the same last name in franchise history:

• Mantha broke into the top 200 career scorers in franchise history with 42 points.

• Penguins defenseman Connor Clifton fought Sabres forward Peyton Krebs at 10:33 of the third period.

• Defenseman Ryan Graves was the Penguins’ lone healthy scratch.

• The Penguins will not resume play until a home game against the New Jersey Devils on Feb. 26.