Following Thursday’s 6-0 rout of woeful Montreal, I confess I wasn’t looking forward to our rematch with Toronto last night at Scotiabank Arena. After all, the Maple Leafs were the hottest team in the league with a hot goalie to boot. Usually the Penguins’ kryptonite. Then there was the not-so-little matter of the 7-1 hiding we laid on them back on October 23. Surely they’d be out for revenge.
Well, it turned out to be a long night all right…for the Leafs. Our boys methodically took control early and never wavered despite constant pressure from the home team from start to finish. Resulting in a crisp 2-0 victory.
Jake Guentzel opened the scoring at 5:46 of the first period with a nifty play off the rush. After taking a pass from Bryan Rust high in the Toronto zone, Jake threaded his way through three defenders. Rather than force a pass to Sidney Crosby in the right circle, No. 59 cut across the slot and buried a backhander behind Leafs netminder Jack Campbell for his team-high seventh goal of the campaign.
The Pens padded their lead to 2-0 with just under three minutes left in the frame, again off the rush. Marcus Pettersson hit Kasperi Kapanen along the right wall with an outlet pass. ‘Kappy” wasted no motion, chipping the puck ahead to Jason Zucker streaking down the left side of the Leafs’ zone. As Zucker blew past Justin Holl, Campbell moved to the post to cut off the short side. However, instead of shooting, Zucker threaded a beautiful cross-slot feed to Jeff Carter, who rambled to the net and banged the puck home.
While goalie Tristan Jarry calmly slammed the door, his teammates proceeded to play a consummate road game in classic bend-but-don’t-break fashion. Even when two-men short for nearly two full minutes late in the game, the black and gold refused to panic, limiting the high-powered Leafs to just one shot on goal thanks in part to three blocked shots by Brock McGinn. In the process securing two big points and earning the admiration of Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe.
“Just how hard they play is what stood out to me,” Keefe said. “I thought the first period, the goals they scored were very similar in nature. Handling their speed coming through the neutral zone was a problem for us there. Then they just defend real hard and make it tough on you. We got what we deserved in terms of our offense, we just didn’t make enough happen there tonight.”
Needless to say, Mike Sullivan was pleased.
“I just think our guys were committed,” said the Pens’ skipper. “They were blocking shots, they were working together as a group. Tristan made a couple of big saves, McGinn had a huge block. When you are up against a group like that, they are so dynamic and so skilled, you certainly have a big challenge ahead of you for that extended period of time, but I thought our guys did a tremendous job.”
Puckpourri
Toronto attempted more shots by a wide margin (64-47). However, the Pens put more shots on goal (31-26) and held a slight edge in high-danger chances (9-8). The Maple Leafs won the faceoff battle (54 percent) and outhit the Pens, 29-26.
Jarry earned the No. 1 star with his second consecutive shutout. He hasn’t allowed a goal in the past 151:06, going back to the second period against Buffalo last Tuesday. During a similar streak in December 2019, Tristan established a club record of 177:15 without allowing a goal. On the season, he’s posted a 2.17 goals against average and .927 save percentage to go with 10 quality starts in 14 outings.
Guentzel, the No. 2 star, extended his goal-scoring streak to four games and his points streak to five. He presently leads the team in scoring with 14 points (7+7). Kapanen, Rust, Zucker and Brian Dumoulin assisted on our goals.
The Pens are 4-5-2 with Sullivan behind the bench and 3-1-2 under Todd Reirden. We’re presently tied for sixth place in the Metro (7-6-4, 18 points), six points from a guaranteed playoff spot and two from a wild card slot.
Up next, a trip to Winnipeg on Monday night.
