A couple of weeks ago I opined that our Penguins were done like dinner. And for all intents and purposes we are…sorta kinda. We trail yesterday’s foe, the Flyers, by seven points in the race for third place in the Metro and the Lightning by a whopping nine points in the wild-card chase. Those are huge gaps to close at this stage of the season.
To top it off, it sounds as though POHO/GM Kyle Dubas has tentative plans to sell, sell, sell at the trade deadline that looms just ahead.
Yet to their everlasting credit, this proud group of champions refuses to throw in the towel. With our season on the very brink and staring an absolute must-win situation squarely in the face, our guys channeled those Stanley Cup winners past and put a seven-spot on the board en route to a pulsating 7-6 triumph over the dogged Flyers. A contest that wasn’t for the faint of heart…or goalies.
Indeed, while our Pens made mincemeat of Philly retread Calvin Petersen, the visitors beat Tristan Jarry like Mike Lange’s rented mule on six of 21 shots, good for a crispy .714 save percentage.
The Flyers, who’d come out on the short end of a rugged battle with the Rangers the day before, grabbed the early lead on a goal by Scott Laughton, thanks in no small part to an uncharacteristic bungle by Lars Eller.
Sidney Crosby countered for the Pens at 9:38 of the period, sweeping home a fat rebound off the right pad of Petersen. The first of Sid’s four points on the afternoon.
Dominating our leg-weary rivals to the tune of a whopping 16-3 edge in first-period scoring chances, we proceeded to snatch the lead at 17:15 on a handsy deflection by Bryan Rust from the slot.
However, any hopes of an easy victory were dashed just 55 seconds into the second period. Thanks to some, shall we say, less than textbook defense by Erik Karlsson, Philly’s Tyson Foerster had about a day-and-a-half to set up Jarry for the kill shot from the side of the net.
Two-two and a brand new hockey game.
Then something about as rare as the return of Halley’s Comet occurred. The Pens scored two power-play goals…back-to-back in the same month period, no less!
Rust got the first on a snipe from the top of the right circle off an atonement feed from Karlsson. Just two minutes later, Emil Bemström notched the second. After taking a bounce pass from Reilly Smith in the left corner, the newcomer walked to the net uncontested and wristed the puck in off Petersen’s stick.
So what do you do with a two-goal lead? Simple. If you’re our Pens, you give it right back.
Flyers d-man Travis Sanheim stepped into a floating puck following a faceoff and blew the biscuit past Jarry at 16:33. Playing the obliging host, our power play yielded a game-tying shorty to Laughton, the result of absolutely dreadful d-zone coverage by Rickard Rakell (forgivable) and Karlsson (not).
Given new life, the Flyers pushed hard for the go-ahead goal. However, on this day the black-and-gold would not be denied. Skating with renewed energy and vigor, Evgeni Malkin set up Drew O’Connor for a short-side tally at 6:41.
Again scoring in clusters, we padded our lead less than two minutes later on a goal-line snipe by Rakell following a marvelous feed from Crosby.
Six-four Pens.
And still Philly wasn’t finished. Cam York torched a slow-to-react Jarry off the rush mid period to close the gap to 6-5. But on this day Lady Luck was our ally. Kris Letang beat Petersen with a knuckling slapper at 15:13 to restore our two-goal edge.
The Flyers pushed back one last time on a power-play marker by Foerster with Petersen safely ensconced on the bench and Sid in the box. However, the Pens kept their rivals at bay during the final two minutes to bag a must-have regulation win, to say nothing of two crucial points.
Puckpourri
The Pens dominated according to Natural Stat Trick, holding a sizeable edge in shot attempts (71-56), shots on goal and scoring chances (both 32-21) and high-danger chances (a ridiculous 17-6).
Our top three forward lines all played well. Bemström looked right at home with Eller and Smith. I love the Geno and the Kids combo on the second line. The big guy appears to be skating with renewed vigor, especially on the forecheck.
O’Connor’s on a heater. He’s scored goals in three straight games and points in five of six. Fellow kid Valtteri Puustinen has points in three straight as well. So does Geno.
With a goal and three helpers, Sid bagged top-star honors. Rust earned the second star with his two goals and three points, but exited the game early due to an apparent upper-body injury. Pray it’s nothing serious.
Despite his power-play kerfuffle, Rakell broke a 16-game goal scoring schneid and played a strong game (two points). He’s notched five points in five games since being reunited with Sid.
Yesterday’s dastardly defense aside, Karlsson’s collected points in 18 of his past 22 games (1+19). He’s currently on a four-game points streak.
Speaking of offense from the defense, Letang has three goals in our past two games and five points (3+2) in our past four. Marcus Pettersson has 21 assists, just two shy of his career high.
Jansen Harkins sent Philly defenseman Jamie Drysdale to the dressing room with a huge but clean open-ice hit, drawing a retaliatory penalty from heavyweight Nicolas Deslauriers. Leading to Bemström’s power-play goal.
On Deck
The Pens (26-21-8, 60 points) embark on a grueling four-game west coast swing, starting with the Canucks (38-16-6, 82 points) on Tuesday night.
Not to overstate the obvious, but every game (and point) is crucial to our flickering playoff hopes.
Hey Rick,
You take wins when you get them, but this W was more of a case of Sid and Petersen then anything else.
Jarry did his level best to give the game away. AS bad as Flyers 3rd string Goalie Petersen’s 0.781 Sv% was, Jarry’s 0.714 was worse. The Penguins resident turnstile had to fish 3 of the 6 pucks that got by him because he still hasn’t learn to play his angles. And on that shorty, once again our floundering fish out of water over-reacted taking himself out of the play twice, the first time because of bad positioning of his skate outside the post, he couldn’t push off with his skate to glide under control, across his crease to cut off the wrap around attempt that he himself opened when he got outside his post. Instead of calming going post -to-post the $5.375 million Goalie belly flopped across his net making it impossible for him to get back up to stop Laughton.
As bad as Karlsson and Rakell looked, Jarry looked worse.
Thank the NHL schedulers for scheduling the Philly to have to play on less than 24 hrs rest, otherwise a rested Philly team gets more than 23 shots and Pittsburgh’s own resident fisherman penguin has to pull 8 or 10 goals from his net.