Sunday afternoon was practically the opposite of Saturday afternoon for the Buffalo Sabres.
Instead of the Pittsburgh Penguins getting the early goal, it was the Sabres who had a quick start, gaining an early lead and carrying it throughout the entirety of the game.
The Sabres added to their lead in the second and third periods, but the Penguins battled back late. At that point, it was too little, too late.
Sam Reinhart's third period goal was enough for the Sabres to steal a couple of points from the Penguins.
Let's take a look at three observations from Sunday afternoon's game:
1.) Reinhart continues to lead the way
Reinhart has been with the Sabres for a long time. For that long time, a lot of his success was tied to Jack Eichel and playing on a line with him. However, Reinhart has taken the reins this year, leading his own lines, and that's been working out for him.
The 25-year-old put Buffalo ahead by two goals Sunday afternoon with his second period goal. He waited along the right side wall as Evan Rodrigues tried to carry the puck out of the zone. Rodrigues faced resistance from Jeff Skinner, skating right with him, and Victor Olofsson, who cut off Rodrigues' zone exit and immediately found an open Reinhart, who sniped a shot past Penguins goaltender Casey DeSmith.
Reinhart would go on to add a second goal in the third period, a similarly placed goal that involved Reinhart picking the corner and ripping a shot past DeSmith.
Reinhart's goals brought him to 17 on the season, to go along with 30 points.
He's been one of the main core pieces, who continues to produce in a lost season. As a restricted free agent this summer, Reinhart has given the Sabres a lot to think about in the offseason.
2.) Samuelsson makes his NHL debut
Sabres interim head coach Don Granato has been much more open to playing young players in the organization than his predecessor, Ralph Krueger.
Just before Sunday afternoon's game, the Sabres called up defenseman Mattias Samuelsson from the Rochester Americans. Granato opted to play him in the lineup over Matt Irwin, who ended up being a healthy scratch for the game.
Samuelsson got his first taste of NHL action on the Sabres' top pairing with Rasmus Ristolainen. The pair were on for a goal-against late in the third.
Ultimately, Samuelsson will need some work if he wants to stick around in the NHL. Granato showed a lot of faith in the young defender by shifting him top pair minutes, as well as icing him late in the game to try to close it out with the Sabres in the lead.
3.) Tokarski continues to hold down the net for the Sabres
Dustin Tokarski's NHL career was practically dead.
The goaltender hadn't played in an NHL game since Oct. 28, 2016 when he came in relief of John Gibson and made five saves for the Anaheim Ducks. He hadn't won a game since Dec. 12, 2015 while playing for the Montreal Canadiens.
Now, Tokarski has backstopped the Sabres to two wins in his last three starts in the past four days. He's now 2-5-2 with a .914 save percentage on the season. He's provided a stable presence as the Sabres' backup since Carter Hutton was lost on a week-to-week basis due to a lower-body injury back on March 22.
Buffalo has now had to rely upon Tokarski with Linus Ullmark coming out of the lineup due to his own lower-body injury.
Tokarski will likely get a lot of starts over rest of the season, but don't be surprised if the Sabres try to move some things around and find a start for prospect goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen.
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The Sabres will have the day off on Monday before getting right back to work on Tuesday evening. The Boston Bruins will be coming to town to play the first of three-straight games against the Sabres at KeyBank Center.
We'll start things off on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. ET with the Paul William Beltz Postgame show, hosted by Mike Schopp. Puck drop is scheduled to take place just after 6:30 p.m. ET on the flagship station of the Sabres - WGR Sports Radio 550.