Penguins Streak is Dead, Long Live the Streak

I got the idea for my silly title midway through the second period of last night’s game. The Penguins trailed St. Louis, 3-1. Casey DeSmith was leaking goals faster than the Titanic took on water after striking the iceberg, while Blues counterpart Jordan Binnington was doing his best Ebenezer Scrooge imitation.

In other words, our boys appeared to be sinking with nary a lifeboat in sight. I thought, surely our winning streak is dead.

Then came the second of two turning points. Coach Mike Sullivan judiciously yanked his foundering netminder in favor of Tristan Jarry, fresh off Covid protocol. If you listened closely, you could hear the sound of watertight doors slamming shut around PPG Paints Arena.

The initial turning point came moments earlier, at 12:20 of the second period to be exact. With his team down, 2-0, Sidney Crosby skated into the Blues’ zone, where he was rudely greeted by Niko Mikkola. Our captain responded with some stick work, which drew a like response from the hulking Blues defender. A full-blown skirmish ensued, with Sid trading crosschecks and gloved punches with his much larger foe. Players from both sides piled on.

The Pens’ competitive fuse was lit.

Bryan Rust promptly scored on a second-chance power play whack to trim the Blues’ lead to one. After DeSmith yielded a third goal to Colton Parayko 19 seconds later and was pulled like an abscessing tooth, the Pens really got down to business. No surprise that No. 87 led the way.

With just over four minutes remaining in the second period, Sid carried the puck into the Blues’ end and fed Rust with a picture perfect cross-slot pass. The Rusty Razor did the rest, ripping it past Binnington for his second goal of the night and fifth in two games.

At 12:23 of the third period Crosby notched the equalizer on a disputed goal. After skating out of a corner Sid, Mikkola and the puck arrived at the same instance, courtesy of a long-range shot by Jake Guentzel. Crosby bumped Binnington as he skated laterally through the crease and whipped the puck home. The Blues challenged, claiming goaltender interference. Replays showed that contact was made outside of the blue paint.

Good goal. Score knotted at 3-all. Pens on the power play, courtesy of the misguided challenge.

A dozen seconds later, Kris Letang set up Evan Rodrigues in his favored spot in the left circle. E-Rod stepped into the feed and blasted the puck past Binnington to stake the good guys to a 4-3 lead.

The “Grind Line” applied the icing on the cake…or plunged a dagger into the Blues’ comeback hopes, whichever you prefer. Teddy Blueger picked off a weak clearing attempt by Parayko and dished to Brock McGinn stationed to the left of the net. McGinn buried the biscuit…and the Blues.

Five-three Pens. A delicious win, our ninth in a row and against a tough opponent to boot.

Long live the streak.

Puckpourri

The Pens outshot the Blues, 41-29, and won 57 percent of the faceoffs.

Jarry stopped all 13 shots he faced in relief of DeSmith and earned the victory, his 16th of the season. Rust paced the Pens with three points (two goals and an assist). He has five goals and eight points over his past two games!

Sid had a goal and an assist, as did Rodrigues. Guenztel and Letang recorded two assists apiece. Tanger had nine shots on goal in 27:05 of ice time, both game highs, but did not earn a star. The honors went to Sid (1), E-Rod (2) and Rusty (3).

Blueger (an assist) and Brian Boyle returned to the lineup, displacing Radim Zohorna and Sam Lafferty, who was dealt to Chicago earlier in the day.

The Pens (19-8-5, 43 points) are presently in fourth place in the Metro, four points behind the Hurricanes and five points off the division lead. They hold an 11-point bulge over Philly, our foe this evening.