Well I’ll be Cow-Kicked, Undermanned Penguins Stun Avs

I’ll be honest. I tuned into the Penguins-Avalanche game last night fully expecting the worst. After all, the Avs entered the game on a five-game winning streak while we’d dropped four in a row in mostly inglorious fashion.

I certainly didn’t expect our Pens to play a crisp, sure, detailed game. Especially with a defensive corps that’s been decimated by injury. Yet that’s precisely what occurred.

Whether last night’s surprising (okay, shocking!) 5-2 triumph over the Avs at Ball Arena was a last-gasp stand by a fading but proud former champion or the spark that ignites a determined stretch run is anyone’s guess. But at the very least it provided a tantalizing glimpse into what could’ve been (or should’ve been) on at least a semi-regular basis.

It was a total team effort as nine of our skaters tallied at least a point. Indeed, everyone from our stars to our foot soldiers to our patchwork defense chipped in. Perhaps no one more than Tristan Jarry, who resembled his two-time All-Star self and not the sagging underachiever who’d been yanked from the net four times in the past month.

Following an even first period when both clubs gave as good as they got, the Pens took charge in the second. We snagged the lead 71 seconds in on an absolutely brilliant goal by Sidney Crosby. Recently voted the game’s most complete player (again) by his peers, Sid took a pass from Jake Guentzel, feinted inside after crossing the blue line and dipsy doodled to the outside, undressing d-man Samuel Girard in the process. Then, as only Sid can do, he roofed a perfectly place backhander over Avs netminder Alexandar Georgiev.

An absolute gem of a goal.

The Avs soon got into penalty trouble as hulking Kurtis MacDermid and Andrew Cogliano were whistled for overlapping infractions. Parked on the doorstep, Guentzel batted in a rebound off an Evgeni Malkin missile at 4:06 to make it 2-zip.

If nobody does backhanders better than Sid, few do deflections and tip-ins better than Jake. Incredible hand-eye coordination. If only he were 6’3” instead of 5’11” he might score 50 goals. But I digress.

At this stage I confess to expecting our usual post-goal let-up, when we invariably allow our foe back in the game. And, yes, the Avs did notch the next goal at 11:35 courtesy of a slam-dunk from the slot by J.T. Compher to cut our lead to 2-1. However, in a visceral departure from the norm, it wasn’t due to lax play or lack of effort on our part. And when the Avs’ Logan O’Connor tripped his black-and-gold namesake at 12:57 we made ’em pay.

The goal-getter? Jeff Carter.

Yes, you read that right! The much-maligned vet drilled a short, cross-slot pass from Bryan Rust past Georgiev from the bottom of the left circle for a power-play goal. Overjoyed to see his teammate score, Rusty gave Carter a flying chest bump in celebration.

The Pens carried a 3-1 lead well into the third period. However, just past the midpoint Devon Toews finished off a brisk tic-tac-toe passing sequence from the left dot to pare our lead to a single goal.

Would the Pens let another game slip away?

Happily…no. As the clock ticked down to seven minutes, Josh Archibald burst into the Avs’ zone with a fabulous bit of hustle to negate an icing. Drew O’Connor pounced on the loose biscuit and, after playing catch with Chad Ruhwedel, lugged the puck out of the corner and up the right wall before feeding Brian Dumoulin at the left point. The veteran defender lobbed a perfect shot-pass toward the net where Carter (yes, Carter!) arrived as Johnny-on-the-spot to steer it home.

After fending off a late push by the Avs, Rust sealed the deal with an empty-netter in the closing seconds to make it 5-2.

A win as delicious as it was unexpected…and needed.

To steal a phrase from Mike Lange, I’ll be cow-kicked!

Puckpourri

The Pens dominated across the board according to Natural Stat Trick. We held the high ground in shot attempts (76-61), shots on goal (45-30), scoring chances (32-28) and high-danger chances (17-15).

I don’t know if Carter’s been nipping at the Geritol of late, but Jeff’s looked rejuvenated the last couple of games. Miscast at this stage (and age) as a third-line center, he’s been more effective on the fourth line.

While I’ve been as critical of his play as anyone, I was overjoyed to see the big guy net those two goals and nab top-star billing. And how good was it for he and the equally maligned Dumoulin to team up on what was essentially the put-away tally!

Heartwarming to say the least.

Carter snapped an 11-game scoring drought, Rust a nine-game skein. It was Rusty’s first tally since the birth of his son, Logan on March 9.

I thought O’Connor (ours) played a terrific game. Love the way he takes the puck, uses his size and speed and just drives to the net. Reminiscent of Carter in his prime. Hopefully the production will follow.

Don’t look now, but we may have stumbled upon a reasonably effective bottom six.

Kudos as well to our undermanned defense, which kept things simple and actually looked pretty solid. The Pierre-Oliver Joseph–Kris Letang, Dumoulin-Ruhwedel and Mark Friedman–Taylor Fedun tandems seem to be well-matched. Especially like the mobility of the POJ-Letang pairing.

Sid became the only player in NHL history to score 30 goals as an 18-year-old (39) and as a 35-year-old. Which only serves to underscore his supreme dedication and talent, along with his marvelous consistency.

With significant injuries of their own, the Avs dressed former Pens Jack Johnson and Alex Galchenyuk (remember him?) Evan Rodrigues sat out due to concussion protocol.

A shame we’re not in the Central Division. We’re 9-1 against Central foes…26-25-10 against the rest of the league, including 8-9-5 against the Metro.

On Tap

The Pens (35-26-10, 80 points) have a quick turnaround, traveling to the Lone Star state to take on the formidable Stars (38-19-14, 90 points).

The victory propelled us past the Panthers and back into the second Eastern wild-card by a point.