Exciting. Thrilling. Riveting. Exhilarating. And oh-so rewarding.
These are just a few of the adjectives that popped into my head in the wake of the Penguins’ pulse-pounding 4-3 overtime victory over the Wild last night at Excel Energy Center.
There are so many story lines, I hardly know where to begin. A pair of goals from Rickard Rakell, who’s quickly gaining folk-hero status in the ‘Burgh. A gritty if imperfect 28-save effort by Casey DeSmith. Jason Zucker’s storybook homecoming marred by injury. And, of course, Evgeni Malkin’s refuse-to-be-denied game winner.
In between, there was enough meat on the bone in terms of action to fill a week’s worth of doggy bags.
The clubs entered the fray headed in opposite directions. While the Pens had waddled through a pot-hole strewn 1-1-1 stretch (9-7-2 since February 17) the streaking Wild were on a 7-0 run. Yet our boys took the initiative and snatched the lead just 66 seconds, thanks to the recast second line. Zucker smartly lugged the puck down the right wall in the Wild zone, in the process taking a defender with him to open up some space, before reversing it to John Marino at the point. Marino snapped the puck toward the net and Rakell, timing the shot perfectly, tipped it between Cam Talbot’s pads.
With referees Reid Anderson and Graham Skilliter calling an extremely tight game, at least through the early going, the Pens uncharacteristically went to the sin bin three times in the opening frame and it proved costly. Following a wild (no pun intended) scramble around our net, Matt Dumba poked the puck over the goal line a millisecond before Kris Letang could fish it out.
Having sentenced the Pens to three-straight infractions, the refs reversed course and whistled the Wild for three penalties. Our guys took full advantage. Just 1:54 into the second period, Jake Guentzel jabbed a rebound of a Letang laser past Talbot to make it 2-1.
The Pens padded their lead to 3-1 mid period. Sidney Crosby scooped up a loose puck along the boards, stepped around Dumba with an exquisite move, and quickly transitioned into the Wild zone with Rakell on a 2-on-1. Sid fed the speedy Swede perfectly and Rakell, presenting himself in text-book fashion, chipped the rubber over Talbot’s glove.
Behind the play, however, Zucker lie on the ice in obvious pain after being shoved into the boards from behind by Kevin Fiala. Appearing to favor his right leg, Jason had to be helped off the ice, pouring a bucket of ice water on the proceedings.
The Wild appeared to strike off the rush near the 17-minute mark, but coach Mike Sullivan alertly challenged the play. Video replays showed Marcus Foligno was clearly offside and the goal was waved off.
No matter. On the ensuing sequence, ex-Pen Frederick Gaudreau scored from the slot to pull the Wild to within one. The bad guys proceeded to knot the score at 3-all early in the third period on a bang-bang play around the net and a sizzling shot by resident Minny sniper Kirill Kaprizov.
I confess. At this stage, I began to lose heart. Fortunately, our Penguins never did. They stood toe-to-toe with the Wild and slugged it out through a taut, physical third-period while limiting their foe to a meager five shots on goal.
With the Wild sporting an unblemished 7-0 mark in overtime, the deck appeared to be stacked against us. But the Pens were both brilliant and relentless, dominating play in the extra stanza. As the clock ticked down to a minute remaining, Bryan Rust found Malkin slicing past the net with a pin-point feed. Talbot stopped Geno’s initial attempt at the side of the net, but No. 71 would not be denied. Working with the diligence of a coal miner, the big Russian took a second whack at the puck…then a third.
As the old saying goes, third time’s a charm. Talbot’s skate came off the post and the puck slid past. Touching off a delirious victory crush around Malkin.
Puckpourri
The stats reflected the hard-fought nature of the game. Both teams attempted 65 shots. The Pens held a 37-31 edge in shots on goal, the Wild a slight advantage in scoring chances (29-26) and high-danger chances (11-10). We won 55 percent of the faceoffs.
With a goal and an assist, including his 78th career game-winner, Malkin garnered top-star honors. Rakell earned the second star with two goals. Guentzel unleashed a game-high eight shots on goal, two more than Geno and three more than Mike Matheson.
Mark Friedman dressed in place of Marcus Pettersson and was his typical agitating self, getting under the skin of several of the Wild. Love what this guy brings to the table.
While all of our guys competed hard and sacrificed, a special shout-out to Brian Dumoulin and Chad Ruhwedel. Their gritty shot-blocking enabled us to kill off a penalty to Jeff Carter during a crucial juncture in the second period.
It’s so easy to take all the things he does for granted. And not to sound like Captain Obvious. But, my word, is Crosby a magnificent player. In addition to his obvious offensive skills (17 seasons of point-per-game scoring) he does so many little things well and is so good away from the puck. For my money, Sid’s still the most complete (and valuable) player in the game.
I don’t often criticize the officiating. But on this night it was uneven to say the least. After making every ticky-tacky call through the first half of the game, the refs buried their whistles after Wild coach Dean Evason complained, which led to some serious infractions being overlooked. Fiala’s boarding of Zucker, accidental or not, for one. And Gaudreau’s nasty trip of Rakell behind the net for another. Not to mention Dumoulin being sent head-first into the end boards.
No word yet on the nature or severity of Zucker’s injury.
Beware the Wild. They’re a near perfect blend of size, skill and speed, with just the right touch of nasty. I wouldn’t want to play them in a seven-game set. The fact that we beat ‘em should provide our guys with a real boost of confidence.
The Pens (41-18-10, 92 points) remain in third place in the Metro, a point behind the Rangers and eight up on Washington. Next up…we travel to Colorado for a Saturday matinee matchup with the high-flying Avalanche.
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Hey Rick,
That was a great entertaining game last night. Malkin did an outstanding job in scoring the game winner in OT. I wonder if there was a big physical defense man on the ice could Malkin have the time to get 3 chances to score?? Very pleased to see Rickard Rakell score 2 goals last night. I hope he sticks around after this season. I like his play.
This game was an all out effort by the Pen's to get the win. The Wild were a tough opponent as you pointed out.
Young Kirill Kaprizov is going to have a great career in the NHL. I wish Bill Guerin was the GM for the Pen's because of his past association with the team. He has done a great job with the Wild to date.
Final point. We will play back to back games with the Avalanche. Interesting difference in the teams make up Rick. Everyone knows about their star forwards Center Nathan Mackinnon ,Nazem Kadri, wingers Gabe Landeskog and big Mikko Rantanen but the real strength of the AVS is their defense.When healthy they have 5 of the Top 50 rated defense men in the league and we have one. Letang. So their focus on the way the play the game is a bit different than ours.
We rely on the Core but driven by Crosby and Malkin where by they can use a different approach. Their defense can beat you as well as their forwards.
Good news for us is 3 of the Avs stars are hurt.
Ley's go Pen's.
JIM
Hello my friend,
I just have a moment. But excellent comments and observations. And very interesting insight into the Avs...especially the part about them having five of the top 50 d-men in the league. Because they have so much top-end talent, I tend to think of them as all-offense, all the time. Given that they're the top team in the league, it makes sense that they're a pretty well-rounded group.
Cheers ... :)
Rick
Rick,
What is scary to me about the Avs is last week they played Calgary,in my opinion one of the best teams in the league with great Coaching in D. Sutter, and even short handed, playing with several key players missing they beat them 2 to 0 in a tight playoff style hockey game.
I follow them as my second team because of the local connection with Nate MacKinnon and other Atlantic Canadians on their roster. Today this game should be fun to watch but remember when they get a full healthy roster come play off time they will be much better than the team we face today.
Cheers
Jim
Hey Jim,
Jumping in here, I do think the Avs are a very strong team and can't wait to see today's game but quite frankly, I am not worried about the, come playoff time. Sorry, but I am not sure we aren't getting swept in the 1st round yet.
There are a lot of players I like on this team and as I wrote yesterday, I am liking how hard Hextall is working to find talent, I even like the work Vellucci is doing with the PK, I am just being realistic. We aren't really contenders anymore.
I agree Coach.We will be lucky to get past the first round. I was jusr pointing out the fact that the Av's were built differently than the Pen's and their weakness if any is there Goalie. But when all healthy they are the team to beat in the West.
Jim
FYI,
Apparently star center Nazem Kadri may also miss the Game on Saturday against the Pen's due to an injury sustained in the game with the Sharks.Av's Coach said it will be a game day decision.Captain Gabe Landeskog, defense men Ryan Murray, Sam Girard, Rookie Bowen Byram will also be sidelined for Saturday's game.We may catch a lucky break.
Rick
Like Zucker on not you can see how with him in the lineup it completely changes the dynamics of all
four line combinations in a positive way. Keeping my fingers crossed he's only sidelined for a short
time.
Also, it bothers me that there was zero retribution. It also bothers me when fans feel like because we
won the game we taught the Wild a lesson "LOL" - In a seven game series we wouldn't have anyone
left standing.
I said this before today if was Zucker tomorrow it could be Crosby, Malkin, etc...etc....then what? Just
win the game and it all good - I think not.
GO PENS
Hey Mike,
A shame about Zucker...man has his luck ever been crappy. I'll be honest. The way he went into the boards with his legs splayed, I was fearful that he re-injured the core muscle that required surgery. The only update I've seen...and it's nothing official...is that it might be a groin rather than a leg or knee.
Lord, I hope it's nothing serious...for his sake and ours. His return seemed to balance out the lines as you noted and provided a spark.
Regarding push back (or lack of)...I did notice a couple of guys put a little extra oomph into their checks against Fiala. But, no, our Pens aren't built to respond to that stuff and never will be under Sullivan. Would love to have gotten Deslauriers, but that's water way, way under the bridge and well down stream...
I do worry what would happen to us if we played Minnesota or Calgary in a seven-game set. (Of course we'd have to get to the Final in order for that to happen.) But I wonder if we'd physically survive a series against a team like that. We were plenty banged up last night...and that's just one game.
Rick
Hey Mike,
Not jumping on bandwagons here, but I have to admit, Zucker was having his best season from a 5on5 stand point for team GF and team GA per 60 minutes. This injury really (expletive deleted).
And I 100% agree, the Penguins lack of Physical Response only invites further liberties. In a 7 game series in the playoffs, there will be no players left.
Totally agree Mike.
Very well put.
Cheers
Jim
If we have to worry about the Wild cheap shotting us that would mean we are both in the final. I’ll take that! You’ll remember how Sid quite literally turned the other cheek when Thornton punched him in the head in the 2016 final. What a moment of disciplined stoicism and focus that was! One of my concerns down the stretch here is hoping Sully gets the Big Three some rest along the way. Malkin may not need it, but Letang, his stellar play and production this year notwithstanding, is 34 years old. He’s a horse, but he will be worn out by the first round if he doesn’t take a breath here and there in anticipation of the long slog, if we should be so fortunate. Dumoulin also seems gassed at times. Our issue is our best players are also our oldest while the top teams in the East with whom we can certainly compete all have their “best” players in or near their prime years. Ours at their best are still better, but they cannot dominate like they could five and six years ago.
Hey John,
Don't know if you've commented on our blog before, but welcome to PenguinPoop.
Very astute observations and comments. I thought we started showing signs of fatigue as early as February, although we seem to have gotten a second wind. Sullivan's forechecking style requires a maximum outpouring of energy and effort on a nightly basis, and I do worry at times if it'll leave us taxed come playoff time.
Perhaps if the battle for second place (and home ice advantage) in the opening round series is settled before the season ends, Sully will give some guys a rest as you suggest. I'll include Jeff Carter and Brian Boyle in that group as well.
Rick
Hey John,
If we only had to worry about the Wild cheap shots that would be great, but they aren't the only team that hits hard and I think that is to what Mike is referring, in playoff hockey, whistles are put away and teams hit and hit and hit. Log before our Pens get to the Finals they will have to absorb Ryan Reeves hits and the NYR.