The Penguins continued to dig out from a dreadful start to the season last night at Crypto.com Arena. Our boys prevailed, 4-3, over a fast, aggressive Kings squad in a highly entertaining contest that featured three lead changes, thanks to Bryan Rust’s second overtime goal. (I’ll explain later.)
I’ll get right to describing the action. Just past the seven-minute mark of the opening frame Kris Letang tried to feed Jake Guentzel in front of the Kings’ net following a give-and-go with Sidney Crosby. Drew Doughty broke up the play and stole Jake’s lunch money (depositing him on his wallet in the process), but Sid swooped in to scoop up the loose change and scored on a wraparound to stake us to an early lead.
Our hosts knotted the score at 14:14 courtesy of a botched line change following a failed black-and-gold power play. Anže Kopitar beat Erik Karlsson to a loose puck in the corner and set the disk on a platter for Carl Grundström, who beat Magnus Hellberg from close range.
When the Kings grabbed the lead midway through the contest on a short-side snap shot by Adrian Kempe? I thought we were toast. After all, our foes were in the process of piling up a 14-5 edge in second-period shots on goal while dominating the action.
However, the new-look Kyle Dubas Pens have a bend-but-not-break quality about them. We somehow weathered the storm.
While killing off a late-period hooking penalty to Letang, Lars Eller stole the puck in the neutral zone and set sail along the right wall. After cutting sharply to his left, the great Dane beat Phoenix Copley with a sizzling snapper from the high slot to tie the score at 2-2 heading into the second intermission.
The Pens retook the lead just 37 seconds into the third period off a slick tic-tac-toe passing play by Karlsson and Crosby, culminating in a nifty redirect goal by Guentzel. LA drew even again on a follow-up goal by Kevin Fiala at 6:40 after Hellberg made two big saves to thwart the initial rush.
On to overtime. With a buck-thirty-seven to play in the extra stanza, Rust beat Copley from the right circle for the apparent game winner.
But hold the phone. Following a quick review, the mustachioed winger was deemed to be offside on the play.
No goal.
No worries.
On the ensuing rush, the Rusty Razor gathered in a drop pass from Evgeni Malkin, feinted, and steamed behind the net before stuffing the puck past Copley at the far post.
“Are you kidding me?” bellowed play-by-play announcer Josh Getzoff. “Take that one to the bank!”
To quote Josh’s former radio tag-team-partner, Mike Lange, “You’d have to be here to believe it!”
Puckpourri
The Kings dominated, stats-wise, piling up lopsided advantages in shot attempts (69-49), shots on goal (36-20) and scoring chances (37-23) according to Natural Stat Trick. Oddly, we had a slight edge in high-danger chances (12-11).
Yes, I’m gonna harp on it again. We’re 6-0 when we attempt less than 70 shots, 0-6 when we attempt 70 or more.
Making his first start in the black and gold, Hellberg came up huge, literally, stopping 33 of 36 shots for a solid .917 save percentage. My nickname for the hulking Swede? Man Mountain Magnus.
Crosby (1+1) and Karlsson (two helpers) paced our attack with two points apiece.
It was a physical affair as the clubs combined for 44 hits, with the home team generally getting the better of the physical play. Andreas Englund made like ex-Pen Deryk Engelland and crushed Radim Zohorna with a bristling check in the first period. Later in the frame, Kempe battled Letang and decked Malkin with a sucker punch.
Like a Timex watch, our guys took a lickin’ and kept on tickin.’
Jeff Carter dressed against his old team. He was a minus-1 with no shots on goal in 7:28 of ice time. No offense to the big guy, but I hope Vinnie Hinostroza…assigned to the Baby Pens to balance the books in the wake of Joel Blomqvist’s call-up…will be back soon.
The name Crypto.com makes me think of “Tales From the Crypt.”
Around the League
Making his first start of the season, old friend Louis Domingue (aka Mr. Spicy Pork) stopped 25 of 26 shots to backstop the division-leading Rangers to a 4-1 win over the Wild.
And…drum roll please…the Sharks won their second game in a row, besting Connor McDavid and the skidding Oilers, 3-2! The Oil are now 2-9-1. Wouldn’t want to be their coach, Jay Woodcroft, right about now.
On Deck
The Pens (6-6) return home to face the Sabres (6-6-1) Saturday night. Thanks to our 3-0 road trip, we’ve leapfrogged Philly and the CBJ in the Metro standings and are currently tied for fifth place with the Caps.
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