The Penguins kicked off their three-game west coast swing in style last night with a resounding 6-3 victory over the Ducks at the Honda Center. While I hate to go overboard on the superlatives, the black and gold played pretty much a perfect game…or at least as close to perfection as we can get with Kris Letang and Tristan Jarry out of the lineup.
Eschewing our usual somnambulant start, we throttled…and I mean THROTTLED…the Ducks from the opening draw. The Pens piled up an astronomical 37-9 edge in first-period shot attempts and an equally staggering 25-8 advantage in shots on goal while peppering native son John Gibson from all angles.
To say we were playing on our toes would be an understatement of the highest magnitude. The good news? With the exception of a slight wobble toward the end when we allowed the Ducks two late goals, we kept attacking all night long.
Given our impressive six-goal outburst, you’d figure our big guns were lighting up the scoreboard, right? Well, Jake Guentzel did snap a four-game goalless skein with his 21st of the season, and Evgeni Malkin (two) and Sidney Crosby (one) picked up helpers, but that was all for our vaunted core.
Rather, the victory was fueled by surprise production from guys who literally haven’t showed up on the scoresheet since the eighth-grade picnic. Pierre-Olivier Joseph tallied two pretty goals from the slot, the first courtesy of assists from Teddy Blueger and Josh Archibald. (No, you don’t need to get your eyes checked…you read that right.)
It was Teddy’s first point since December 28, a span of 16 games. For Archibald, his first point since a two-point effort on November 25!
Among the other scoreless birds of a feather who suddenly flocked together? Kasperi Kapanen notched his first goal since the Winter Classic. Chad Ruhwedel picked up a second assist (and second of the season) on Bryan Rust’s third-period marker, his first point since…and this is truly incredible…November 11!
Last but not least? Much-maligned Jeff Carter rose from the dead to pot his eighth goal of the campaign, his first goal (and point) since January 8.
That makes two goals and four points from our defense, two assists from our fourth line and a pair of goals and three points from our virtually non-existent third line.
A winning recipe any time.
Let’s hope we can lather, rinse, repeat. Often.
Puckpourri
The Pens were, in a word…dominant. We piled up huge advantages in shot attempts (91-42), shots on goal (59-31), scoring chances (52-21) and high-danger chances (27-7). While the Ducks are hardly among the NHL elite, they’d been on a 5-1-1 roll and were scoring a ton of goals.
Leading the possession charge was the Crosby line, which held an astounding 34-5 edge in 5v5 shot attempts. Our ‘d’ accounted for 20 of our 59 shots on goal.
In a total team effort not seen since I don’t know when, 10 of our 18 skaters tallied at least one point. Top star POJ paced the attack with three points (2+1), followed by Rust and Kapanen with a goal and a helper each and second-star Malkin with two assists.
Speaking of Geno, congrats to the big guy for logging his 1200th career NHL point!!!
Playing with notable fire, Sid extended his points streak to nine games. Geno has 15 points (5+10) in his last nine games. On the flip side of the hot/cold spectrum, ex-Duck Rickard Rakell is goalless in four games.
Casey DeSmith turned in a workmanlike effort between the pipes, stopping 28 of the 31 shots he faced for his second straight win.
Letang sat out due to an “illness.” (Pray it’s nothing more serious.) Mark Friedman filled in and logged a season-high 19:50 of ice time and four shots on goal. The feisty defender went after Kevin Shattenkirk at 15:59 of the first period in retribution for a hard trip on Guentzel. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…love what “Frieds” brings to the table.
Speaking of defensemen, there’s been an upswing in Brian Dumoulin’s play of late. Although it’s not the be-all-end-all indicator of effectiveness, he’s a plus-5 in his last nine games and a plus-8 since the Winter Classic. “Dumo” seems to be making better reads and has been noticeable in a good way. Perhaps his surgically repaired knee is finally sound.
Speaking of, if we can just get healthy and stay that way (a big ask) we have a good shot at extending our postseason streak.
On Tap
The Pens (26-16-9, 61 points) face the Kings (28-18-7, 63 points) tonight in the second of back-to-backs. With our victory over the Ducks, we leapfrogged the Capitals into fourth place in the Metro and presently hold the first wild card slot. We have a one-point edge over the Caps with two games in hand and a two-point bulge over the Islanders with four games in hand.
