Penguins Survive Shark Attack, Prevail 3-1

On the surface, everything seems okey dokey, don’t it?

The Penguins successfully navigated the Shark-infested waters (ice) of the SAP Center last night and came away with a 3-1 victory. In the process avenging the disgraceful pre-bye week loss to the Sharks on home ice and garnering four of a possible six points on our three-game western swing.

Mission accomplished, right?

Well…sort of.

Why the qualifier, Buker?

Circumstances prevented me from watching the game on TV, but I did listen to it on radio. Play-by-play man Josh Getzoff and color man Phil Bourque didn’t paint an especially rosy picture with their words. We were sluggish out of the blocks, yielding a couple of early odd-man breaks, careless with the puck and downright sloppy at times. Nor, by the sounds of it, did we play with much spirit or intensity. (Do we ever?)

Indeed, the Sharks outshot us, 39-28, and for most of the evening had much the better of the play.

We won because of Casey DeSmith, plain and simple. Oft-maligned, our plucky backup was magnificent, turning aside 38 shots while facing down 18 high-danger chances. An assist to Sidney Crosby, who by all accounts played an inspired game, along with opportunistic scoring and some good ol’ fashioned luck.

Indeed, the Pens received a fortuitous call…or non-call…on their game-opening goal at 5:52 of the first period. Just prior to corralling a rebound and zipping it home for his 19^th goal of the season, Rickard Rakell appeared to interfere with Aaron Dell as he cut in front of the crease, courtesy of a slight shove from Erik Karlsson. Fortunately, the goal stood.

The same couldn’t be said of our Pens, who were soundly outplayed to the tune of a 29-19 disadvantage in shots on goal over the final 40 minutes. Yet despite frittering away two second-period power plays we padded our lead mid-period thanks to some first-line magic. Sid cycled behind the Sharks’ net following a give-and-go with Jake Guentzel before slipping a brilliant return pass to Jake on the backhand. The tousle-haired winger appeared to misfire, but the puck hit Dell’s left skate and glanced in.

Two-zip, Pens.

Despite being outplayed, we clung to our two-goal lead until 15:57 of the third period. Pouncing on an awful cross-ice pass by Marcus Pettersson, Timo Meier steamed up ice and beat DeSmith for his 31^st goal of the season.

Again, lucky luck smiled on our boys in the form of a brain cramp by Sharks coach David Quinn. Eschewing an earlier opportunity to pull Dell, the ex-Rangers skipper inexplicably failed to summon his goalie until only 45 seconds remained. Just as Dell reached the bench, Crosby headmanned the puck to Guentzel, who split the vacated net for the capper.

We’ll take the two points…and gladly (thanks Casey). But I can’t shake the feeling that we’re a house of cards, ready to collapse at any time.

Puckpourri

By the numbers, the Sharks had the better of the action. According to Natural Stat Trick, they held serve in shot attempts (58-53), shots on goal (39-28), scoring chances (32-29) and high-danger chances (18-13). They dominated the faceoff circle…usually our domain…winning 67 percent of the draws.

DeSmith claimed top-star honors, and rightfully so. With three helpers, Crosby nabbed the second star. Without much fanfare, Sid’s tallied 17 points (3+14) in his last 11 games and 65 points in all. At age 35, he’s enjoying a remarkable season. And his passes? A thing of absolute beauty.

Guentzel tied the Caps’ Alex Ovechkin for the league-lead in empty netters with six. By the way, Ovi’s taken a leave of absence to attend to personal matters.

Rakell enjoyed a three-point night (1+2), but was denied third-star honors, which went to Dell.

With Corsi’s of 62.96 and 60 respectively, the Crosby and Teddy Blueger lines had strong games, possession-wise. The Evgeni Malkin (36.84) and Jeff Carter (37.30) units? Not so much.

Speaking of Blueger, he had a golden opportunity to score into an empty net in the closing seconds and snap his ghastly 27-game goal drought, but his shot rang off the crossbar. It’s been a lost season for Teddy offensively.

I think the Sharks’ home uniforms are about the ugliest I’ve ever seen.

On Tap

The Pens (27-17-9, 63 points) wrap up their road trip with a crucial Metro matchup against the Islanders (27-23-7, 61 points) on Friday night.

With the win over the Sharks, we hurdled the Caps and into fourth place in the Metro and the top wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. While we haven’t exactly been a ball of fire, our chief competition…the Caps, Islanders and Panthers…have been largely moving sideways.

As for the Sabres? Since I anointed them a sure-fire playoff team, they’ve lost four in a row. Gotta love the PenguinPoop curse.