Penguins Outlast Pesky Devils

It’s supposed to be one of the “easy” games on our schedule. A sure two points that we can all but bank just by showing up. Ka-ching!

Yeah, right. And I’ve got some swamp land in Florida I’ll sell to you cheap.

As young and talent-challenged as they are, the Devils always battle us tooth and nail, as our 6-7-2 record against them over the past four seasons will attest.

Last night’s 6-4 triumph at the Prudential Center was no exception.

Miles Wood served notice three minutes in, barging to the net and punching a loose puck past Casey DeSmith’s outstretched pad.

Fortunately, the Penguins responded with a goal from their newest secret weapon, Jared McCann. Camped out to the left of the Devils’ net, No. 19 deftly roofed a made-to-order rebound off the glove of Mackenzie Blackwood for a power-play goal, his fifth man-advantage marker since March 25.

Speaking of secret weapons, Brian Dumoulin staked us to a 2-1 lead in the final minute of the opening frame on a routine shot from the point that hit Devils forward Janne Kuokkanen and wildly changed trajectory. After languishing without a goal for nearly two years, “Dumo” has two in his past three games.

The Devils tied it again early in the second when Jack Hughes pounced on a rebound. (This kid’s going to be really good someday.) Although the shot totals don’t back it up (11-11) I thought our youthful hosts dominated in zone time during the period, pinning us in our end with an aggressive attack and forecheck while we appeared to be feeling the effects of our second game in 24 hours.

Fortunately, DeSmith was up to the task, including an incredible flying block-pad save on Jesper Boqvist that was positively Fleury-esque.

Near the end of the period we got another goal from an unlikely source…Colton Sceviour. The spirited Alberta native snapped a 26-game goal drought with a handsy deflection to stake us to a 3-2 lead.

Our guys widened the gap on third-period tallies by Bryan Rust (a power-play slapper) and Sidney Crosby, then appeared to shift into cruise control.

To quote NBA shot-blocking legend and GEICO commercial star Dikembe Mutombo, “No, no, no!” The Devils popped in a pair of unassisted goals by Boqvist and Wood to pull within one before Rust slipped in an empty-netter with 25 seconds to play.

It wasn’t especially pretty. But our guys overcame heavy legs and the gritty Devils to earn two points.

Now, about that swamp land…

Puckpourri

The Devils outshot the Pens, 30-27, and generally looked to be the fresher team. But the Pens were at their opportunistic best, converting on two of four power-play chances. Continuing our recent total-team trend, 11 of our players scored at least a point.

Crosby once again led the way, tallying a goal and two assists to earn top-star honors. Rust snapped a five-game goals/points drought with two markers and a helper on McCann’s goal.

In the bipolar stats department, Jared has three goals in his past four games…all on the power play. He’s a minus-seven over that span.

Following an extended cold snap (think polar vortex), Mark Jankowski picked up an assist to run his point-scoring streak to four games. He has two goals and four assists over that span to go with a plus-six. A nice turnabout for a guy who’s struggled for most of the season.

Mike Matheson (minus-two) appeared vulnerable at times when the Devils applied pressure around our net. He continues to be the X-Factor…at both ends of the ice.

The Pens increased their lead to six points over fourth-place Boston (four games in hand) and 11 over the fifth-place Rangers.

We’re 8-3-1 since Evgeni Malkin went down with a lower-body injury. Remarkably, we’ve scored 41 goals during his absence…an average of 3.7 goals per game. We scored 3.4 per game with “Geno” in the lineup.

Opinyinz

I think it’s time to officially acknowledge the work former GM Jim Rutherford did over the off-season. Perhaps his best since the Cup campaigns.

Some of his additions have worked out extraordinarily well. Cody Ceci comes to mind. Others have been decent-to-downright-good (Matheson, Kasperi Kapanen, Evan Rodrigues). Depth players like Anthony Angello, Frederick Gaudreau and Radim Zohorna have shone. Even comparative have-nots Jankowski and Sceviour have chipped in on occasion.

Better still, the sum of the parts adds up to a better whole. The guys genuinely seem to like and play for each other.

Can’t overlook the work that Mike Sullivan and his staff have done, either, especially considering all the injuries to key personnel. Someone had to mold these guys into a cohesive unit. “Sully” definitely merits coach of the year consideration.

BULLETIN

In a pair of moves designed to add flexibility and cap space, the Pens have placed forward Colton Sceviour and defenseman Juuso Riikola on waivers.

Acquired over the off-season along with Matheson in a deal with Florida, the 31-year-old Sceviour has three goals and three assists in 31 games for the black and gold. He’s in the final year of a contract that pays him $1.2 million.

Promising but seldom-used, Riikola, 27, has played 75 games for the Pens spread over three seasons and tallied three goals and 12 points. He’s on the first year of a one-way, two-year contract with an AAV of $1.15 million.

If they pass through waivers unclaimed, they can be sent to the taxi-squad or Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at a reduced cap hit.