Penguins Show Mettle, Rally to Snuff Out Flames 5-2

Impressed.

It’s been a long (long) time since I’ve felt that way about our Penguins.

I felt that way last night.

There are just so many things to like about our scintillating 5-2 victory over Calgary. The way we hung tough, for one. The Flames, rested while we skated the night before, played a pretty near perfect road game for 40 minutes. They outshot us 26-16 over that span, including a 7-2 margin over the final 10 minutes of the second period. Culminating in a power-play goal by rookie Matt Coronato 98 ticks before the intermission.

Yet despite our foes apparent dominance, I never sensed our guys were rattled or on the ropes. A welcome departure from last season, when we seemed to unravel at the drop of a hat. Or more accurately, the first sign of adversity.

To the contrary, we remained cool and poised.

Turns out we had the Flames right where we wanted them. Eighteen seconds into the final frame, Bryan Rust chipped a shot/pass off the end boards from Kris Letang off the behind of a startled Jacob Markstrom and in to knot the score.

Twenty-three seconds later, Reilly Smith beat the hulking netminder on a beautiful toe drag from inside the right circle, courtesy of an absolutely filthy feed from Evgeni Malkin and an exquisite little bounce pass off the sideboards by Ryan Graves to set the play in motion.

Next up, Jake Guentzel. At 5:50, the tousle-haired winger gathered in a sharp cross-ice pass from Letang and snapped the puck past Markstrom from the right faceoff dot.

The Flames literally never knew what hit ‘em.

Of course, we’ve seen these types of outbursts from our boys before, only to watch them fritter away leads. Again, this was a far different team than the one we’re accustomed to. They were positionally sound. And while my eyes may have deceived me, I could’ve sworn we were clogging the neutral zone at times. While I hate to use the dreaded “t” word (rhymes with crap), let’s just say we made it difficult for the Flames to advance the biscuit.

For all intents and purposes, Malkin struck for the put-away tally at 14:14 of the period. Smith made a hustling play at the blue line to keep the puck in before dropping a nifty little pass to a trailing Geno in the right circle. Like a rampaging bull, the rangy Russian stormed to the net and torched the beleaguered Markstrom though the six hole.

The Flames received a gift goal and a bit of a reprieve with just under four minutes remaining when a wing-and-a-prayer backhander by Jonathan Huberdeau glanced off Guentzel’s skate and skittered in. A couple of icing calls with Markstrom pulled for an extra attacker added to the drama, but only briefly. Rust scored his second goal of the game, an empty-netter, with 22 seconds left to run the final score to 5-2.

Again, a thoroughly impressive win.

I’m reminded of an old Monkees hit from the ‘60s. Something about believing.

Puckpourri

Going by the stat sheet, the Flames owned the game. According to Natural Stat Trick, they bested us in shot attempts (a staggering 80-49 edge), shots on goal (36-30) and scoring chances (40-31), although it’s somewhat instructive that the Pens had the better of the high-danger chances (12-11).

The Flames also controlled the faceoff circle (53.1 percent) and had the better of the special teams play, cashing in on one of three power plays while we were oh-for-three.

Again, it was the way we played that impressed me. More controlled, more structured, far less frenetic. No great surprise that three of our goals came as a direct result of capitalizing on turnovers. I’m telling ya if we play the right way and take what the game gives us, we have a chance to evolve into a lethal counterstrike team.

Alex Nedeljkovic was razor sharp, stopping 34 of 36 shots. “Ned” earned third-star honors behind Rust (No. 1) and Malkin (No. 2).

Speaking of Rusty, he skated like he was shot from a cannon…or has something to prove. Man, has Geno been a MONSTER. He appears to have discovered the fountain of youth. Whatever he’s drinking, bottle it and save some for me.

In a more serious vein, he and Smith are developing some real chemistry.

My goodness, is Erik Karlsson gifted. The more I watch him, the more dazzled I am by his array of skills, not to mention his skating, on-ice awareness and generalship. Talk about controlling the tempo of a game.

Prodigious.

Mike Sullivan doesn’t get a whole lot of love on our blog. Credit him for plugging Rust in alongside Crosby and teaming Rickard Rakell with Malkin (I would’ve done the opposite). Our top two lines are absolutely humming.

Too, Sully seems to be encouraging better defensive play and attention to detail since our opening night loss. It’s worked like a charm the past two games.

Is Sid turning into a heavy? I swear I saw him deliver at least two big hits last night, and he’s been consistently sticking up for his teammates in scrums.

Leadership personified.

Mea Culpa

In my summary of the Caps game, I called out our bottom six, citing poor metrics. However, not everything can be measured on a slide rule. Great advanced stats or not, they’re getting the job done and are a big part of the reason we’ve allowed only two goals over our past two games.

Sometimes I think I know more than I do.

Up Next

The Pens take on the Red Wings in the Motor City on Wednesday night, followed by a Saturday night tilt against the Blues and old friend Kasperi Kapanen in St. Louis.