Penguins Stave Off Flyers for Must-Win Win

Last summer Fenway Sports Group was reported to have asked general manager Ron Hextall to share his plan for retooling the Penguins. Hexy assured them he had a plan, but that it was hard to articulate.

Along those lines, I’m sure coach Mike Sullivan has a plan for protecting third-period leads. And I’m sure he and his staff communicate that plan to the players. Unfortunately, something always seems to get lost in the translation.

I don’t mean to be a kill joy. I’d really like to be happy about our 4-2 victory over the Flyers last night at PPG Paints Arena. After all, our guys came through in an absolute must-win game, in the process squeaking past the Panthers in the race for the second Eastern wild-card spot. And for 40 minutes I was. Despite Evgeni Malkin’s one man penalty-a-thon, we generally carried the play.

Then came the third period, which quickly devolved into a not-so-funny comedy of errors. With the notable exception of goalie Casey DeSmith, no one wearing the black and gold appeared to have a clue about where he was supposed to be or what he was supposed to be doing. There was absolutely zero structure and even less attention to detail.

Guess I’d better start at the beginning. The Pens got off the schneid at 11:40 of the opening frame courtesy of a king-sized break. Rickard Rakell cut loose a blast from the high slot that ricocheted off the Plexiglas behind the cage before bounding off goalie Samuel Ersson’s backside and into the net. Reinforcing the old adage that good things happen when you shoot the puck.

The Pens made it 2-0 minutes later on a more traditional type of goal. Rakell once again did the honors. With Flyers d-man Travis Sanheim in the box, Malkin fed the silky Swede a hard shot-pass in the slot. RikRak bunted it past Ersson off the heel of his stick for his second goal of the game.

With three minutes to go in the period, DeSmith robbed Philly sniper Travis Konecny with a stunning goal-line glove save to preserve our lead.

We continued to cruise until the 7:31 mark of the second period, when Malkin took a hooking penalty. Nothing terribly unusual about that. After all, Geno is the team’s all-time penalty minute king. However, no sooner did we kill off the penalty then No. 71 was issued a second hooking minor shortly after he returned to the ice.

The odyssey continued at 14:23 when Malkin was whistled for high-sticking. Fortunately, our besieged PK caught a break when Philly’s Noah Cates was flagged 22 seconds later. In the meantime, the Pens had padded their lead at 13:23 on a pretty backhand goal off the rush by Bryan Rust.

DeSmith made another huge save, this time on Brendan Lemieux at the buzzer, to keep the score 3-0.

Then came the calamitous third period. Malkin once again pressed the self-destruct button, this time taking an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty at 1:49 after absorbing a high stick. I’m not privy to what he said to the refs, but his protests promptly earned him a 10-minute misconduct and game misconduct. Which meant Geno was assured of a hot shower and we were assured of playing without our second-best player for nearly a full 20 minutes in a must-win game.

Predictably, things went to hell in a handbasket. Philly heavy Nicolas Deslauriers pounded the puck past DeSmith from the lip of the crease at 5:57. While we pretty much stood around and watched, the Flyers proceeded to pile up a 31-10 edge in third-period shot attempts and a 13-6 advantage in shots on goal.

DeSmith continued to do his part, denying Owen Tippett with a spectacular blocker-pad save with just over six minutes to play. But the inevitable occurred at 17:31 when Konecny beat Casey with a snipe from the slot.

Suddenly it’s 3-2 and I’m sweatin’ bullets. Convinced we were going to give the game away, I could scarcely watch.

Fortunately, an unsung hero stepped to the fore. Although not for a lack of effort, Mikael Granlund hasn’t produced much since arriving in the ‘Burgh. But with the game clock ticking down to a minute, he dove on his belly to poke a loose puck away from Tony DeAngelo and up to teammate Ryan Poehing high in the zone. The speedy forward turned on the jets and escorted the puck into an empty Flyers net to seal the all-important victory.

I’m happy to report Nightmare on Centre Avenue Part 2 didn’t occur.

Puckpourri

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers dominated across the board. Philly held an edge in shot attempts (69-50), shots on goal (33-31), scoring chances (36-30) and high-danger chances (19-17). Fortunately, DeSmith was superb, turning aside 31 of 33 shots. A performance that should’ve earned him a game star.

Kris Letang played his 1000^th career game. In typical Tanger fashion, he logged 30:34 of ice time, delivered four hits and finished a plus-two.

Rust also reached a milestone, playing in his 500^th NHL game. With three goals and four points in his last two games, Rusty’s heating up.

Rakell earned top star honors with his two goals, his 26^th and 27^th of the campaign. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he was a phenomenal pickup by Hextall. Malkin and Sidney Crosby picked up two assists each, as did Brian Dumoulin.

I’m not sure what’s gotten into Dumo of late, but he’s tallied four assists to go with a plus-four in his past three games and has played extremely well. In the process, he tied his career high in points (23) and established a new career best in assists (22).

I’m not sure what got into Geno, either. To be that undisciplined (28 penalty minutes) and to become that unhinged in such a critical game? It doesn’t speak well of the big guy. A shame, too, because he’s been playing so well (80 points on the season).

Maybe I’m just catching him at the wrong time. But I swear every time I watch Pierre-Olivier Joseph he’s either getting tangled up in himself or falling down or making a critical mistake near our net.

On Tap

The Pens (38-29-10, 86 points) trek to beautiful downtown Newark to take on the Devils (48-21-8, 104 points) on Tuesday night.

We presently occupy the second Eastern wild-card spot, one point behind the Islanders (with a game in hand) and one point up on the Panthers.