BUFFALO, N.Y. — Avery Hayes was only supposed to be an emergency call-up — a fourth-line fill-in with Rutger McGroarty and Kevin Hayes while the Penguins dealt with a couple of unforeseen absences.

He certainly wasn’t expected to steal the show. But the 23-year-old winger made history with an NHL debut for the ages.

Avery Hayes scored a goal on his first shot, then added another on a one-timer later in the first period to lead the Penguins to a 5-2 road victory against the Sabres in the final game before the Olympic break.

“Honestly I blacked out a bit there. It was a ton of fun and it was a great win for the team,” Hayes said. “Right now I can’t put it into words. I’m just excited to see my family.”

Hayes, who scored 13 goals and 10 assists in 31 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL, was called up around noon and made the 4 hour, 30 minute drive to Buffalo just in time to suit up.

“It was fine. I was able to sleep for a bit of it,” Hayes said. “I didn’t have much time to think about the game which honestly was pretty nice. It wasn’t too stressful.”

Considering how he played, the Penguins (29-15-12) couldn’t have been happier he made it for the pregame skate.

“It was unbelievable the day that he’s had,” Penguins coach Dan Muse said. “He woke up this morning without a thought of playing a game in the NHL and, the day he had, the travel in, to jump right in and score the way he did … he was awesome.”

Hayes may have opened on the fourth line, but he also saw time skating on the right side a couple of times on the top unit with Sidney Crosby and Anthony Mantha. He scored his second goal on an assist from Mantha.

“It was really cool,” Hayes said. “(Crosby is) arguably the best player ever, so just being able to be on the ice with him and being able to make my debut in the same lineup as him is really cool.”

His spark could not have come at a more opportune time. The Penguins had dropped their last two games following a six-game winning streak and were in danger of going into the three-week Olympic break saddled with a three-game skid. Instead the team picked up a much-needed win and locked into second place in the Metropolitan Division at the break.

“We talked this morning about that there’s been a lot of good since our last break,” Muse said. “Obviously the two points is so important, so I think we deserved to feel good at the break and I think we went in there and earned it.”

Game flow

It didn’t take long for the Sabres (32-19-6) to take over the game.

Even after the Penguins applied the early pressure and had a couple of solid chances — albeit without a shot — Buffalo was able to take advantage of the first key mistake when defenseman Bowen Byram forced a turnover in the neutral zone from Egor Chinakhov. Ryan McLeod gobbled up the loose puck and fed it down the left wing to Jason Zucker, who whipped a shot over Penguins netminder Arturs Silovs’ shoulder and under the crossbar for his 15th goal of the season just 1:46 in.

After the goal the Penguins spent most of the next 10 minutes in their own zone, but they finally caught a break.

McGroaty won a faceoff in the Penguins zone back to Ilya Solovyov, who floated it out to the neutral zone. Hayes beat two Sabres defenders to the puck at the Buffalo blue line, went in on a mini breakaway and snapped a wrist shot between the legs of netminder Alex Lyon for his first NHL goal to tie the game, 1-1, at 9:19.

He wasn’t done.

After a Sabres power play, Penguins defenseman Parker Wotherspoon made a nice play at the left side of Buffalo blue line to keep the puck in the attacking zone and fed it down low to Mantha, who skated it below the goal line. Mantha then slipped a drop pass to Hayes, who was stationed just above the crease, for a one-timer under the crossbar for his second of the night and a 2-1 Penguins lead at 18:47.

Ben Kindel padded the lead midway through the second period with an outstanding individual effort.

After a faceoff loss in the Penguin end, stole the puck from Sabres defenseman Jacob Bryson at the blue line and with a steal, led a 2-on-1 into the Buffalo zone with Justin Brazeau on his right side. Kindel looked off at Brazeau and beat Lyon stick-side at 7:44 of the second period for a 3-1 Penguins advantage.

Tage Thompson, who will represent the United States in the Olympics, scored his 30th of the season on a power play at 1:55 of the third period after Evgeni Malkin took a questionable tripping call deep in the Buffalo zone.

It was over when …

Tommy Novak scored his 11th of the season at 15:31. Chinakhov flipped a shot to the net and, when Lyon couldn’t handle the rebound Novak, who was stationed to his left, slipped a short pass to himself and backhanded one upstairs for the 4-2 lead.

Stat of the game

Hayes is the first Penguins rookie to score two goals in his NHL debut since Jake Guentzel netted a pair in his first game on Nov. 21, 2016 in a 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers at PPG Paints Arena. The only other Penguins player to do it was Rob Brown when he scored twice in a 5-4 home loss to New Jersey on Oct. 21, 1987. As such, Hayes is the first to do it both on the road and in a Penguins victory.

Around the boards

— Despite the late notice, Hayes’ family was in attendance.

— Silovs stopped 26 of the 28 shots he faced.

— Center Blake Lizotte missed the game as he and his wife are expecting the birth of their first child.

— With the scratch, Rickard Rakell has now played only 35 of the Penguins 56 games this season. His status for the Olympics is also uncertain.

— Kindel added his second of the night an empty-net short-handed goal with 13.6 seconds remaining as the Sabres pulled the goaltender when Mantha went off for a 6-on-4 advantage with 1:29 to play.

Quotable

“It was a huge goal. A breakaway. It was a really fast shot by him with great placement and scoring the second one to give us the lead. Going to the second period with a 2-1 lead was a huge advantage,” — Silovs on the two Hayes goals.

Up next

It will be a while before the Penguins take the ice as a team. Because of the three-week break for the Olympics, they won’t get back into regular season action until Feb. 26 when they host New Jersey. The Penguins do have four players, Erik Karlsson (Sweden), Rakell (Sweden), Crosby (Canada) and Silovs (Latvia), who will represent their respective countries in Milan.

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