For 60 minutes the Penguins slugged it out on even terms with Western Conference heavyweight Dallas last night before a throng of 17,147 at PPG Paints Arena. Time and space were at a premium and quality scoring chances were rarer than Indian Head nickels. It was a playoff-style stare down and whichever team flinched first would lose.
Well, I’m happy to report that our Pens prevailed, 2-1, thanks to some last-minute heroics by Evgeni Malkin.
The Stars got the early jump right out of the gate on the hockey equivalent of a busted play. A Nils Lundkvist shot from the point glanced off the skate of Kris Letang and onto the waiting stick of Roope Hintz (great name) to the right of our cage. With Tristan Jarry moving right to left and his five-hole exposed, Hintz had easy pickins’.
Thanks to a ton of veteran leadership, our Pens don’t rattle easily these days. Aided by back-to-back hooking calls, our guys cashed in with the man advantage at 13:14 to knot the score. Kasperi Kapanen took a short pass from Jason Zucker along the right wall and drove the penalty killers back before spying Pierre-Olivier Joseph coming late on the play. Kappy hit POJ in stride with a crisp cross-ice pass. With Zucker providing a perfect screen, the young defender tucked a wrister under the crossbar for his first goal of the season.
The teams proceeded to battle tooth-and-nail for the next 46 minutes. Jarry came up large midway through the second period, stopping Ty Dellandrea on a 2-on-1 and the ever-dangerous Hintz in the opening moments of the third.
Stars goalie Jake Oettinger returned the favor, blunting a Teddy Blueger backhander off the rush and stoning Ryan Poehling from inside the left circle in the closing minutes.
Overtime appeared imminent. But in the final minute of play Malkin hit Bryan Rust with an outlet pass to ignite a three-man rush. Rust slipped the puck to Zucker, who in turn dropped it off to No. 71 trailing the play. Geno fed Rust as he broke to the net, but Oettinger alertly jabbed the rubber off his blade. Flying down the lane, Malkin arrived as Geno-on-the-spot to bury the loose biscuit and touch off an emotional victory celebration with his mates.
No better way to end a game than with a little Malkin magic.
Puckpourri
The Stars held a slight advantage in most statistical categories, including shot attempts (57-51), shots on goal (27-25), scoring chances (20-18) and faceoffs (53 percent). High-danger chances were even at 5-apiece.
With a Corsi of 78.26, Geno’s line was a 5v5 dynamo. At the opposite end of the possession spectrum, the Jeff Carter line struggled (Corsi of 27.27).
Malkin snapped a nine-game goalless drought and extended his points streak to six games. Sidney Crosby’s line was held off the scoresheet, a rare occurrence.
I love the energy and fire Zucker’s bringing to the table. Thank goodness we didn’t dump him this summer.
Over his past nine starts Jarry’s posted a .949 save percentage.
The Pens have notched at least one power-play goal in six-straight games.
We held Stars scoring sensation Jason Robertson without a shot on goal. No easy feat.
Jeff Petry sat out with an upper-body injury. Super sub Chad Ruhwedel did his usual solid job in relief.
Don’t look now, folks, but the Pens have won six in a row to claim second place in the Metro. We’ve got the fourth-best record in the Eastern Conference. Who’da thunk it about a month ago? Not I.
On Tap
The Pens (17-8-4, 38 points) get a well-deserved two-day break before travelling to the sunshine state to take on Florida (13-12-4, 30 points) on Thursday night.
What a difference a season makes. The Panthers lost only 18 games in all of 2021-22.
