Welcome to the Mellon Arena menagerie, where rookie sensation Johan (Moose) Hedberg has seemingly stolen the spotlight from Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux.
A late season callup from the IHL Manitoba Moose, Hedberg entered Monday's matchup with a playoff-best 1.33 goals-against average and .947 save percentage, not to mention a herd of followers wearing golden foam antlers.
But in Game 3, Hedberg was left to fend for himself far too often as the Sabres outduelled the Penguins, 4-1.
Buffalo now trails the best-of-seven NHL Eastern Conference semifinal, 2-1.
"They got the bounces that we got the first two games," Hedberg said. "Sometimes it's going to go that way."
Curtis Brown, Jason Woolley, Miroslav Satan and James Patrick scored for the Sabres, who have yet to win a series in which they trailed 2-0.
Maxim Afinogenov added two assists.
"We did what they did to us," said Doug Gilmour, who set up the decisive goal.
"When they came into our building, they waited and waited and when they had some chances, they capitalized. We had to be patient, too."
Kevin Stevens replied for the Penguins, seeking their first conference final berth since 1996.
Last year, they headed home up 2-0 on the Philadelphia Flyers, only to lose four in a row.
"We've talked about it already," Lemieux said. "The general feeling is nothing is over."
Penguins captain Jaromir Jagr sat out a second successive game with a suspected charley horse.
Jagr, who led the league in scoring during the regular season, participated in the morning skatearound, but not the pre-game skate.
"I'd only be hurting the team," Jagr said. "If I was out there, it would be like we were playing with four guys (ie. shorthanded)."
That the injury restricts Jagr's ability to shoot has prompted speculation that he is perhaps concealing a shoulder injury.
Jagr received a jolt against the boards from Alexei Zhitnik in Game 1, but professed not to be hurt on the play.
Painful playoffs are nothing new to Jagr, who has missed portions of Pittsburgh's last three playoff runs with assorted ailments.
The Penguins certainly missed him on Monday as the Sabres outshot them in all three periods and 30-20 overall.
"Any time you're missing your best player, it's going to hurt," said Lemieux, held pointless and a minus-2 in Game 3.
"He'll be back when he's back."
Both Hedberg and Dominik Hasek sparkled in a spirited and scoreless first period.
Hasek proved particularly fortunate, however, as both Stevens and Alexei Kovalev hit goalposts.
"We had a chance to bury them early," Stevens said. "But I don't think they stole a game.
"They jumped on us good. Maybe we could have had four goals in the first period, but they could have had seven in the second."
Stevens opened the scoring by deflecting an Andrew Ference point shot past Hasek on a power play at 5:34 of the second.
But Brown tied it 1-1 with a quick shot that rang off the right post and behind Hedberg at the 13:04 mark.
It was Buffalo's first even-strength goal of the series.
What followed was its first lead of the series as Woolley re-directed a nifty cross-crease pass from Gilmour at 9:51 of the third for his first post-season goal since June 8, 1999.
"The third game had to come our way," Woolley said. "If it doesn't, we're in a lot of trouble and we know that.
"I think you have to give our guys credit for not trying to force the envelope. We were able to put aside the thought that losing this game would put us in deep trouble."
Satan upped it to 3-1 on a splendid wraparound at 13:03 before Patrick's empty netter sealed the victory with 21 seconds remaining.
For Satan, it was just his second point against Pittsburgh after registering nine against the Flyers in Round 1.
"In Philadelphia, we won the two games there and if we are to have a chance in this series, I think we have to do the same thing here," Satan said. "We don't want to go home 3-1."
Game 4 goes Wednesday night at Pittsburgh (7 p.m. ET, CBC).
