The Pen(guin) is Mightier, Prevails over Preds in OT

On Tuesday night, I thought our Penguins played perhaps their best game of the season, resulting in a crisp overtime triumph over the Kings.

As for last night’s pulsating victory over the Predators in Music City? Well…

…to borrow a phrase from The Wizard of Oz, that’s a horse of another color. In short, a weird, wild affair, albeit one with a happy ending.

While our Pens skated as if they were wearing snowshoes at the outset, the Preds pounced to a 1-0 lead on their second shot of the game. And, yes, Tristan Jarry was between the pipes.

We didn’t get our first shot on goal until the 13:15 mark. Our first goal, a far post punch-in by Bryan Rust on a feed from Sidney Crosby, soon followed. Each would collect four points before the night was through.

Having knotted the score, we promptly coughed up a go-ahead goal to Luke Evangelista on the power play. When ex-Bolt Steven Stamkos struck like Lightning (sorry) early in the second period to make it 3-1? Let’s just say I uttered a few unmentionables and leave it at that.

Then hulking Michael McCarron mashed Crosby into the boards while killing a penalty.

Big mistake. Huge.

Sid scored on the power play to snap his 10-game goalless skein, then gave McCarron an earful. Our captain would play with a burr under his saddle for the rest of the evening.

He promptly set up Rickard Rakell in the slot and…BOOM…just like that we had a tie game.

The score remained knotted at 3-all until 7:44 of the third period when Brady Skjei tallied for the Preds. But the Pens, fully engaged following a spirited scrum, tied the game again at 11:36 on a center-point rocket from a bloodied (and po’d) Erik Karlsson.

Overtime more-or-less mimicked the previous 60 minutes. Our guys tried mightily to hand the game to their hosts on a silver platter, only to have them refuse our largesse. Then the worm turned, Evgeni Malkin fed Rust in the slot and the Razor ripped the biscuit past Juuse Saros for the game-winner.

Puckpourri

It was breakout night for the big boys. Rust (2 goals + 2 assists) and Sid (1+3) each racked up four points. Karlsson and Rakell had two points apiece. Great to see Sid and EK65 snap those lengthy droughts.

Matt Grzelcyk assisted on Karlsson’s goal. The previously persona non grata defender has eight points (1+7) in his past nine games, including points in four straight. He and Karlsson made beautiful music together again.

Man, if we stumbled into an effective tandem here, it’s huge. For the record, Gryz successfully complimented puck-mover Charlie McAvoy in Boston for a number of years.

On the downside, the Ryans—Graves and Shea—were awful. I think it’s a given we’ll see Pierre-Olivier Joseph on Saturday night.

No, his numbers weren’t pretty (22 saves on 26 shots, .846 save percentage). But Jarry made some big stops and stiffened as the game went on. Speaking of ugly stats, Saros yielded five goals on 20 shots. On this night, he was Juuse Sorrows (har har).

For what it’s worth, I would’ve played the hot hand and started Alex Nedeljkovic in net. A moot point.

None of our ex-Preds—Anthony Beauvillier, Cody Glass and Philip Tomasino—breached the scoresheet against their former team.

Still not sold on the Blake Lizotte–Noel Acciari–Matt Nieto combo. The latter two seem to be dragging Lizzo down to their generally ineffective level (xGF% of 33.94 as a line). But Acciari and Nieto are good penalty killers and the team’s winning, so I get why Mike Sullivan’s sticking with them.

Thanks to our 8-2-1 run, we’re now above hockey .500 at 15-14-5, good for 35 points. We remain a point behind the Senators, who likewise are heating up, in the chase for the second Eastern Conference wild card spot.

Next up, the Devils in Jersey on Saturday night.