BUFFALO, N.Y. -- With starting goaltender Matthew Murray out with a lower-body injury, the Pittsburgh Penguins did their best to make things easy for Murray's replacement.

Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist to lead the Penguins to a 4-0 win over the struggling Buffalo Sabres on Friday night. It was a dominant performance from start to finish, which helped Tristan Jerry record his first career shutout in his sixth career start.

"We're just executing, I think," Crosby said. "It's great to see some of these going in and if we keep generating these chances and continue to play the same way and be strong around the other team's net, hopefully we can keep finding those."

As Crosby goes, so go the Penguins (14-10-3), who have won three in a row following a three-game losing streak. The Penguins captain has 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his last five games and is heating up at the right time. Pittsburgh has a five-game home stretch on the horizon starting with Saturday's return matchup against Buffalo.

"That's the guy that has led this team to two Stanley Cups back-to-back," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "He's an elite player. He plays at both ends of the rink and we've seen Sid's game coming here for three or four weeks now."

Tom Kuhnhackl, Jake Guentzel and Patric Hornqvist also scored for Pittsburgh. Jarry made 34 saves and settled into the game as it went on. Jarry's best moment came when he stopped Kyle Criscuolo on a partial breakaway one minute into the third period.

"These are still my first couple games in the NHL so (the fast start) calms the nerves a little bit quicker than usual so it's nice when the team puts a couple in quickly for me," Jarry said. "It's something that I'll be able to look back on hopefully in a while and be able to realize that it happened and it'll be a nice memory to have."

Robin Lehner made 21 saves for the last-place Sabres (6-16-4), who continued their slide at the bottom of the standings. The Sabres have been shut out in three consecutive games and have lost 10 of its past 11 games.

"It's quite embarrassing," Sabres coach Phil Housley said. "Our coaching staff comes up with a game plan and I just don't think we're executing our game plan. ... We're playing a backup goaltender; we didn't take advantage of that tonight. We came close, but you can't give a good team look that two goals to start the game."

The Penguins took control right from the start.

Kuhnhackl opened the scoring on a penalty shot 3:23 into the game. Kuhnhackl was awarded the penalty after he was slashed by Sabres defenseman Victor Antipin from behind on a breakaway. On the penalty shot, Kuhnhackl ripped a wrist shot high to the glove side for his first goal of the season.

After Buffalo's defense followed that miscue with an even worse mistake minutes later, Pittsburgh made it 2-0. Sabres defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen gave the puck away to Crosby in the slot, and the Penguins captain was in all alone for an easy goal at 6:38, also shooting high-glove on Lehner.

"Guys are going to make mistakes," Housley said. "They're making them at critical times at the start of the game and it's unfortunate because it puts us on our heels right away."

Guentzel made it 3-0 on a poor play by Lehner with 1:55 remaining in the first period. With Lehner slow to move from post to post, Guentzel moved in with speed and picked up his 12th goal of the season on a wrap-around.

Hornqvist scored near the end of the second period after several moments of dominant play in the Sabres end. After the Penguins held the puck down low for a long period of time, Conor Sheary spotted Hornqvist flying into the slot and Hornqvist put a one-timer into the net for his ninth goal of the season.

NOTES: D Josh Gorges and D Justin Falk were scratched for the Sabres. ... D Chad Ruhwedel and C Greg McKegg were scratched for the Penguins. Ruhwedel entered the NHL in 2013 as an undrafted free agent with the Sabres and spent four years with the organization, posting two assists in 33 games from 2012-16. ... Penguins RW Josh Archibald was sent to down to the AHL on a conditioning assignment on Friday. ... This was C Zemgus Girgensons' 300th NHL game. The Sabres forward has struggled in recent seasons and has three points in 23 games this year. ... D Zach Bogosian returned for the Sabres after missing 25 games with a lower-body injury.