Penguins Chomp Sharks, 6-3, End Futility Skein

Well, I’ll be cowkicked, to coin a favored Mike Lange phrase.

Just when it seemed our Penguins might never win another game, we regained a smidgen of our old magic…or at least enough to defeat the lowly Sharks, 6-3, at PPG Paints Arena last night.

Not to make a Captain Obvious statement, but the Pens positively, absolutely had to win this one to keep their microscopic playoff hopes alive.

To the action. Early on it was a Sharks feeding frenzy, as they piled up a decisive 12-4 edge in shot attempts before the game was four minutes old. Fortunately, this species of Elasmobranchii are of the rare toothless variety…nine of those attempted shots missed the net.

After killing off a minor penalty to Bryan Rust, the flow of the game turned in favor of our Pens. Noel Acciari tipped in a center-point blast from Erik Karlsson at 10:28 to give us the early edge.

Thanks in no small part to Karlsson, the Sharks bit back four minutes later to knot the score. EK65 was loathe to cover countryman Fabian Zetterlund, who pounded home a juicy rebound from the doorstep.

When the visitors grabbed the lead on a fluke goal by Marc-Edouard Vlassic in the final minute, courtesy of Marcus Pettersson’s shin, I thought, “Uh oh…”

This time our Pens hung tough. Just past the four-minute mark of the second period, Acciari forced a turnover along the wall and pushed the puck deep to Emil Bemström. The newcomer circled behind the net and dished a short backhand pass to Jeff Carter slipping through the back door. Easy pickins’ for big Jeff.

Next up…Evgeni Malkin. Following up a hard shot by Drew O’Connor that bounded off Magnus Chrona, Geno backhanded the biscuit off the netminder’s pads and through the wickets for as pretty a drive-by goal as you’ll ever witness.

Three-two, Pens.

Ah, but nothing ever comes easy for our boys, does it? With just 78 seconds left in the period and all five Pens inexplicably bunched on the right side of their zone, old friend Mikael Granlund found Klim Kostin uncovered in the slot. The “Klim Reaper” beat Tristan Jarry glove side to knot the score at 3-3 heading into the final period.

Again the Pens battled back, thanks to goals from the unlikeliest of sources. Reilly Smith dug the puck out of a scrum along the end boards and fed Pierre-Olivier Joseph, who promptly slipped a pass to John Ludvig at the left point. Following a brief shimmy, the rookie d-man lobbed a seeing-eye floater that somehow found its way through a chorus line of traffic and past Chrona’s glove at 2:38.

Exactly two minutes later the roles were reversed. After Malkin moved the puck low-to-high to Ludvig at the right point, the rugged defender fed Joseph at the left point. POJ’s missile grazed the skate of Rickard Rakell, clanged off the iron and in.

Up 5-3, we didn’t exactly put on a clinic in playing with a lead. Indeed, the Sharks outshot us, 13-4, over the final 20 minutes. Making the most of those four shots on goal, we converted on three of ‘em, including the aforementioned markers and Rust’s empty-netter with just under two minutes to play.

Not exactly the way you draw it up on the white board. But we’ll take the two points, and gladly.

Puckpourri

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Sharks prevailed in shot attempts (75-69) and shots on goal (32-31); the Pens in scoring chances (29-26) and high-danger chances (10-8).

Nice to see so many of our guys show up on the score sheet. Indeed, only four skaters were held without a point.

With a nod to Jarry, O’Connor (two assists) has arguably been our best player since returning from a concussion. For as much heat as he’s drawn, Geno has tallied a team-best three goals and nine points over our past 13 games. Great to see him get that goal and his 50^th point, the 14^th time in his brilliant career he’s reached that mark.

On the flip side, has anyone seen Sidney Crosby? If so, would you please return him (along with those pirated Jaromir Jagr bobbleheads) to PPG Paints Arena post haste?

People used to question if Jake Guentzel was a Crosby creation. Given our captain’s paltry output of late (three assists in his last nine games), it’s more-than-fair to ask if the opposite is true.

The obvious answer is they made each other better. Like peanut butter and jelly and peas and carrots. It should also be noted that Sid was quite productive (four goals and 10 points) in his first six games without Jake.

More than likely, weariness and disappointment have set in. After all, Sid’s human, too. Just hope he bounces back.

Speaking of human, the camera panned to Mike Sullivan during the second period and caught him with a somewhat wistful and vulnerable expression. I don’t know what he was thinking or feeling at that moment, but I kind of felt for him. Whatever’s going on with our Pens, you know he and his staff are trying their utmost to right the ship.

Win two Cups and you’re a hero. Lose and suddenly you’re a bum. The sad way of things in professional sports.

Whatever our problems are, contrary to my opinion at the start of the season Carter hasn’t been one of ‘em. The big guy has a legit shot at cracking double-figures in goals. All you can ask from a 38-year-old fourth liner.

Granlund, who continues to draw heat a la Jack Johnson on some local media sites, collected two assists and played a strong game while rebounding in Lazarus-like fashion from a potentially ugly knee injury. He leads the Sharks in scoring with nine goals and 42 points in 52 games…a 66-point pace over a full season. He also passes the puck more accurately than 99 percent of our guys.

Would still love to get Kostin.

On Deck

The Pens (29-27-9, 67 points) host the Rangers (43-19-4, 90 points) and skidding Detroit (33-27-6, 72 points) in back-to-backers this weekend.

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but thanks to the Red Wings’ bumbling (seven regulation losses in a row) we’re not totally out of the wild-card chase. We trail the Wings and Islanders by five points.

Of course, the onus is on us to win. Something we’ve had grave difficulty doing of late (2-6-1 in our last nine).