As I watched our Penguins hold off those pesky New Jersey Devils yesterday afternoon from my perch on a rowing machine at Wright’s Gym, I couldn’t help but breathe a deep sigh of relief at the final horn.
Big win, I thought to myself. We snapped a two-game losing streak to halt our mini-skid and held serve in the battle for third place in the MassMutual East.
Then again, from now until the time when Evgeni Malkin, Teddy Blueger and Jason Zucker return to the lineup, they’re all going to be big wins.
I give our guys a ton of credit. As banged up as we are…to rub salt in the wound, sparkplug Brandon Tanev didn’t suit up due to an unspecified injury…we played a really solid hockey game against a foe that often bedevils us.
“We competed hard,” said coach Mike Sullivan. “I really liked our first period, even though we gave up the first goal. I feel like we come out with a strong period. We had great energy. I thought we controlled territory. So I think I think the players understand the circumstances…”
Indeed, the game provided a blueprint for how the Pens will need to play, at least until the Biblical plague of injuries subsides. Tight defense. Great goaltending. Opportunistic offense. Strong special teams. And gritty play in front of both nets. Not to mention the uncanny resilience that’s enabled us to rally from deficits in 16 of our 19 victories this season.
Speaking of, such was the case yesterday afternoon at the Prudential Center. Seven minutes in the Devils stormed the net on a 3-on-2, culminating in a Kyle Palmieri tally into a vacated cage. But the Pens continued to apply the heat, outshooting their hosts by a 9-4 margin in the opening frame.
In the second period the black and gold took over. At 4:59 we evened the score on a greasy sequence that typifies how we’ll need to play. Zach Aston-Reese and Sam Lafferty steamed into the New Jersey zone on a 2-on-3. Although an attempted give-and-go went awry, the duo continued to churn goalward and reaped the rewards when ZAR’s wrister from the slot slipped beneath Scott Wedgewood’s left pad.
Chalk up one for ugly (and the Pens).
Less than two minutes later, with Jersey’s Miles Wood in the box for interference, we struck again. Bryan Rust took a short pass from Jake Guentzel and circled away from the boards before splitting two Devils with a power move. Making a bee-line for the net, he beat Wedgewood with a nifty backhander.
Score one for pretty. Pens up 2-1.
Of course, we never do things the easy way. Consecutive minors to Anthony Angello and Brian Dumoulin kept us shorthanded through a sizeable chunk of the third period. But the PK unit, undermanned with Blueger and Tanev on the shelf, rose to the occasion.
Sidney Crosby made sure their good work wasn’t for naught. After a rare faceoff loss, he hustled back to the point to intercept a clearing attempt, turned and fired. Stationed in the left circle, Guentzel deflected the puck past Wedgewood’s outstretched glove.
Patric Hornqvist would’ve been proud. Three-to-one, Pens.
We received a mild scare in the closing minutes when the Devils appeared to score from a net-front scrum. However, for one of the few instances in recent memory, the hockey gods smiled on us and the goal was waved off.
Again…big win. Let’s hope we can lather, rinse, repeat against the Devils this afternoon.
Puckpourri
The Pens outshot the Devils, 29-25, and won 57 percent of the draws. Special teams played a pivotal role…we were 1-for-2 with the man advantage while killing off four power plays against. We’ve inched up to 19th in the league on power-play conversion rate (19.3 percent). Our PK is still a ways down the ladder at 23rd (75.3 percent).
With 24 saves on 25 shots, Casey DeSmith earned the No. 1 star. He’s presently sixth among NHL goalies with at least 10 appearances in goals against average (2.11), fourteenth in save percentage (.919).
Rust was named second star and Crosby third (two assists). Guentzel finished with a goal and an assist. Defenseman Marcus Pettersson was a plus-two. Angello and Lafferty each drew two minor penalties, three for high-sticking.
The injury curse has extended to former Pens as well. Rangers defenseman Jack Johnson is out for the season with a core muscle injury suffered, perhaps not so ironically, against the black and gold. The Blues’ Oskar Sundqvist is likewise out for the season with a torn ACL.
The Pens presently reside in third place in the East with a record of 19-11-1 and 39 points. However, the Bruins hold the inside track by virtue of a better points percentage and three games in hand. In the good news department, the bottom seems to be falling out on the Flyers (33 points). Philly’s 4-7 in March, with only two regulation wins.
