For the first 10 minutes of the game last night the Calgary Flames dominated our Locals. They were out-shooting the black and gold 10 – 1; scoring at 7:34 of the 1st Period, on their 7th shot. After tying up the puck in the Penguins’ defensive zone, Dillon Dube slipped, unopposed, down the slot and ripped a wrist shot into a wide-open short side.
Fortunately, our favorite flightless fowl were only playing Calgary and they flamed out. After, that lopsided opening 10 minutes, the Visitors only managed 24 more shots to our Penguins 37. By the time Jake Guentzel closed out the scoring with but 56 ticks left on the Over Time (OT) clock, the Home team held a 38 to 34 shot advantage.
Last night’s game also saw Alex Galchenyuk score his first goal as a Penguin. On the final rush of a Power Play (PP) Jared McCann flicked a backhand pass across the blue line to a streaking Dominik Kahun who was barely on side. Flying down the Left Wing (LW), Kahun whipped a wrist shot on goal that Calgary Goalie David Rittich couldn’t handle cleanly. The huge rebound came back up the slot too fast for McCann to make a play on, but not for Galchenyuk, who was circling in on his off wing; he rifled the biscuit into the net before Rittich could get back in front.
Let’s hope this gets the monkey off Galchenyuk’s back.
Calgary looked at the play closely to see if they had an off-side challenge, but at least the TV replay appeared to show Kahun was clearly on side, so the Flames Coach, saved his challenge.
There was also a little controversy over whether the Goal was a PPG or an Even Strength Goal (EVG). At first the official scorer called it an EVG but later changed it to a PPG.
McCann and Galchenyuk teamed up again at 7:14 of the 2nd frame to put Pittsburgh up 2 – 1. Marcus Pettersson made a good play to keep the puck in at the left point, wrapping it back around to the right corner. Brandon Tanev pressured the Flames defense enough to get them to cough up the puck. Galchenyuk, tapped the puck over to McCann and the red-hot McCann shot a laser of a wrist shot off a defender’s leg and past Rittich, over his glove hand.
Tanev didn’t get credit for an assist on the play but his work in the corner was instrumental on the play.
Zach Trotman took a tripping penalty against Andrew Mangiapane a little over 7 minutes later, opening a door for the Visitors to slip back into the game. It took 21 seconds for Sean Monahan to convert that opportunity. Johnny Gaudreau found Monahan alone in front of Tristan Jarry but Monahan missed the open cage, wide to Jarry’s right, on his first attempt. Matthew Tkachuk pounced on the puck and fed it back to Monahan for a 2nd try. With Jarry lying face down on the ice, Monahan made no mistake the second time around, shooting over the fallen Penguin’s goalie.
After a scoreless 3rd Period and a several shots, missed shots, and blocked shots by both teams, Kahun at the end of his shift, out skating a fresher Flames team found Guentzel open at the Flames blue line. Guentzel drove in on the LW and blew a wrist shot past Rittich low to the glove side.
Jarry ended the game with 32 saves.
Guentzel’s late game heroics drew our hometown heroes to within 1 point of 3rd place in the Metropolitan Division and kept them 1 point ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers.
There is little time to rest this week, tomorrow night the Vancouver Canucks come to town for a tilt. Game time is 7pm. Then, after a day off for Thanksgiving, our boys of winter are on the road for back-to-back games against the Columbus Blue Jackets Friday night and then the St. Louis Blues Saturday, 8pm. With Galchenyuk on the scoreboard maybe we can get 2 lines rolling and ride through the week.
Go Pens!!!!!!
Note – The above article was amended. The original article cited Keith Tkachuck, Matthew’s father as the player who passed the puck to Monahan. Thanks to Jorenz for picking up on my typo.
Hi TOR!
You said: ”Keith Tkachuk pounced on the puck and fed it back to Monahan for a 2nd try.”
Keith came out of retirement?? :o)
Very good performance by Jarry! As Rick mentioned, I would like to see Jarry more often. He seems more confident than Murray, more proactive. Murray plays too deep in his net. Post to post, he is not as fast as he used to. I also noticed that Murray has been struggling with his reading of the game for the last few weeks. His processing is sometimes out of sync. He doesn’t think in advance, he responds at the very last second, so it is very hard to have an overall perspective.
There is a great quote by Wayne Gretzky: ”A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” That’s why Murray needs to be more proactive. But now, he is passive, waiting for something, not anticipating.
Murray has good skills but needs to rework some aspects of his technique. But with Buckley, I’m not sure if he is the right person for that.
Hey Jorenz,
My bad, sorry Matthew, I am just so used to talking about your father. Oops
I’d
I always liked that quote and used it in many contexts, even outside of hockey.
I agree, Buckley hasn’t impressed me any at all. I can’t remember who told me this but the down side is that I heard it was Murray that wanted him.
Interesting fact about Murray. I also heard that Sullivan had something to do with that as well, since he was the Baby Pens coach at the time.
Hey all,
I’m going to take a little credit for last night’s win.
Other Rick and I were bantering about the Pens Monday afternoon at the gym (yes, we’re still on speaking terms) and he said, “Who should you bad-mouth in print so they’ll do well?”
And I joked, “How about Galchenyuk? Maybe if I write something bad about him he’ll score a hat trick.”
No lie.
Okay, so Galchenyuk didn’t score a hat trick. Then again, I didn’t write about him either. But he did get two points…including his first Pens goal. I’d like to think I contributed in some small way… 🙂
Rick
PS–I can’t resist squirting some gasoline on the smoldering embers. How about Tristan Jarry? He had another strong effort in goal…32 saves. Over his last three games…all black-and-gold wins…he’s stopped 100 of 104 shots for a .962 save percentage. He looks as cool and composed as Murray used to.
If I’m Mike Sullivan, I give the kid an extended look.
Hey All,
Rick B isn’t lying, he really did call out Galchenyuk. Looks like any time you want someone to do well, all you hav eto do is get Rick B to just think about writing nasty stuff about them and they will do well. He doesn’t even have to do it, just think about it.
Rick,
You aren’t pouring any gasoline on a fire. You didn’t direspect Murray. You only complimented Jarry.
I am not one of those people who think you have to bad mouth one goalie in favor of the other. As I wrote over the weekend, I like Jarry and hope he does well. During the whole Murray – Fleury debate I was never one to talked bad about Fleury, I just said I like Murray too and pointed out reasons why, since the team had to pick one over the other because of the Cap/Expansion landscape, Murray was the better choice.
Now, I haven’t nor am not going to bad mouth Jarry or Murray. In fact I wrote that I also would like to see Jarry over more ground and better opponents.
I will however, remind you that Calgary is not the Calgary of last year. In a year where most teams are scoring more than 3 goals per game, they are barely scoring 2 goals per game and their Shooting % is half way between 7 and 8% (for those that don’t know that is bad and at or near 30th in the league in that dept.). They fumbled the puck around the net several times last night and had Jarry down and out with many of the same mistakes you cite on Murray, but they were just too inept to bury it.
I take the win and the saves and just say thank you without any bravado in a game like that.
tOR,
“I am not one of those people who think you have to bad mouth one goalie in favor of the other. ”
I’m not bad mouthing one in favor of the other I’m bad mouthing one in favor of any other. The way you bad mouth Sullivan, Simon and some of the other players non stop.
The guy is stinking the joint up and I shouldn’t say something? Is Murray above criticism?