There are so many juicy storylines imbedded in the Penguins’ 4-0 triumph over the Bruins last night at PPG Paints Arena, I scarcely know where to begin.
On second thought, yes I do.
Casey DeSmith. Fifty-two saves. Shutout.
Nuff said.
A close second? Jake Guentzel. Hat trick. Forty goals on the season.
Here’s the kicker. The Pens allowed those 52 shots on goal, 41 of ‘em over the final 40 minutes, a whopping 22 in the third period alone. Yet I thought we excelled defensively. Yeah, you heard me right. We defended our net front with vim and vigor and, at least to my eye, kept the odd-man breaks to a minimum. In the process, establishing a blueprint for postseason success. That is, to cover our collective arses and wait for our chances on the counter attack instead of trying to force the issue.
Of course, that requires stellar goaltending, which we got last night from DeSmith…in spades. Casey made so many big saves last night it’s impossible to catalog them all. But suffice to say he stopped eight shots by Bruins sharpshooter Brad Marchand…several on open looks from the circles. Can’t say enough about how (The Mighty) Casey stepped up to the plate.
Credit goes to Mike Sullivan and the coaching staff, too. Sully had the good sense to return to our traditional defensive pairings of Kris Letang–Brian Dumoulin, Marcus Pettersson–John Marino and Mike Matheson–Chad Ruhwedel. The tandems seemed to be comfortable, balanced and effective, for lack of a better way to describe them.
In particular, I didn’t notice Dumoulin all night long. A good thing.
The four-day layoff didn’t hurt, either. We definitely had our legs and looked fresher than at any time in recent memory.
Without further ado, here are the…
Goals
The sequence that led to our first goal at 7:49 of the first period started indirectly with a good defensive play by Ruhwedel and featured some masterful puck movement as well. Matheson initiated the scoring play with a diagonal pass to Rickard Rakell in the neutral zone. Rakell tapped the puck ahead to Sidney Crosby, who in turn moved it briskly to Guentzel breaking into the slot. Jake blew past Charlie Coyle and beat Jeremy Swayman five-hole with a sweet backhand-to-forehand move. Pens 1-0.
Likewise, our second goal at 6:10 of the second period began with a defensive play. Jason Zucker won a battle along the boards and nudged the puck to Pettersson, who went d-to-d to his partner Marino. Number six alertly spotted Jeff Carter in the neutral zone and hit him with a crisp pass. Displaying excellent vision and acuity, Carter one-touched the biscuit to Zucker bursting down the left side. Protecting the puck beautifully from Brandon Carlo with his right leg, Jason beat Swayman high glove side. To digress, when “Zucks” does tickle the twine, they’re invariably pretty goals. Pens 2-0.
Our third tally at 16:12 of the period borrowed a page from Penguins yore. Crosby executed a perfect “Murphy Dump,” lofting the puck high into the Boston zone. With the Bruins flatfooted and befuddled, Letang pounced on the loose rubber and fooled the luckless Carlo with a nifty curl-and-drag before dishing a cross-slot pass to Guentzel in the right circle. Jake wasted no time, whipping the puck past Swayman. Pens 3-0.
After we weathered the Bruins’ intense third-period storm, Guentzel split an empty net at 17:55 of the third period to send the hats a flyin.’ Pens 4-0.
Puckpourri
The Bruins dominated the game statistically, holding the edge in shot attempts (78-55), shots on goal (52-32), scoring chances (34-25…including 19-3 in the final period) and high-danger chances (12-11…including 9-1 in the third…yikes).
Guentzel was named first star, DeSmith second. Zucker earned third-star honors. Jake reached 40 goals for the second time in his career and moved into a tie with Crosby atop the Pens’ scoring list with 81 points.
With his third shutout of the campaign (one less than Tristan Jarry), DeSmith hiked his save percentage to .915 and lowered his goals against average to 2.75. Over his last 14 appearances dating back to a shootout loss to Detroit on January 28? Casey’s posted a sterling .931 save percentage.
With the victory, the Pens (44-23-11, 99 points) reclaimed third place in the Metro, two points up on the Capitals, who have a game in hand. Beginning with a Saturday afternoon match-up with Detroit, three of our four remaining games are against non-playoff opponents.
