Our Penguins tried to bring home the bacon at PPG Paints Arena yesterday afternoon. Oh, how they tried! Unlike the previous day, when they turned in a largely languid effort in a loss to the Bruins, they pulled out all the stops against the Maple Leafs.
In the end, they just couldn’t prevent the visitors from scoring, an all-too-familiar occurrence of late, resulting in a 6-5 overtime defeat. In the process, wasting a four-goal, eight-point effort by the Sidney Crosby line.
Somewhat predictably, the Leafs got the early jump on goals by Max Domi and Conor Timmins to snag a 2-0 lead. However, in a portent of what was to come, the Pens struck back midway through the first period on a rare goal by the fourth line, with Cody Glass doing the honors on a deflection.
Then Crosby’s line shifted into gear. Indeed, the rest of the game from a black-and-gold standpoint belonged to Sid and his mates.
A scant 52 seconds after Glass’s marker, Rickard Rakell pounced on a carom off the end boards and ripped it past Leafs goalie Joseph Woll glove side to knot the score at 2-all.
Next it was Sid’s turn at bat. Taking a picture-perfect feed from Erik Karlsson at the left dot, the Pens’ captain lashed the puck between Woll’s pads for a go-head, power-play goal.
The Leafs responded early in the second period on an absolute bullet by Auston Matthews from the right dot. Not to state the obvious but, my word, can he shoot the puck. Almost Ovi-esque.
Still, our Peskies retook the lead at 15:38 of the frame, with Crosby setting up Bryan Rust for his patented cut-through-the-slot, beat-the-goalie-to-the-far-post move.
Four-three, good guys, with just over four minutes to play in the period.
Given the ebb-and-flow of the game, not to mention our proclivity for yielding untimely goals? You kinda sensed our lead wouldn’t hold up.
Sure enough, with 56 seconds left in the period Jake McCabe split our defense with a beautiful lead pass to John Tavares, aided in no small part by an incredibly ill-timed change by Karlsson. Tavares steamed in alone and snapped the puck past Joel Blomqvist to knot the score at 4-4.
The worst, unfortunately, was yet to come. Again, Karlsson was the culprit.
With the closing seconds of the period ticking off the clock, EK65 tried to force a point-to-point pass to Evgeni Malkin. Matthew Knies picked off the wayward feed, rushed up ice and beat Blomqvist blocker side with 0.1 seconds remaining.
Talk about a gut punch.
Much to their credit, our Pens wouldn’t lie down. On the opening shift of the third period, Rakell muscled past Matthews before cutting to the net with a power move and beating Woll with a backhander.
Remarkably, neither team scored for the remainder of the period, and the game went to overtime. Exactly 60 seconds into the extra stanza, William Nylander sliced laterally through the high slot and surprised Blomqvist, beating the beleaguered rookie against-the-grain, high blocker side. Denying our Pens the extra point.
If nothing else, it was a highly entertaining game. To borrow one of Mike Lange’s favorite sayings, if you missed this one shame on you for a month.
Puckpourri
It was a game of milestones for our top line. With his two goals, Rakell reached and surpassed the 500-point mark for his career.
And Sid? He passed a couple of guys you may have heard of, Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe, on the all-time goals and assists lists, respectively. Talk about some exclusive company!
For the season, Crosby has 65 points (19+46) in 61 games.
Rust finished with a goal and three points, equaling Sid’s output.
Not sure what’s gotten into Ryan Shea of late, but since returning to the lineup he has three points (2+1) in five games, more than doubling his previous output for the season.
Speaking of scoring, following a six-game pointless skein, Karlsson’s tallied 13 points (4+9) in his last 10 games. If only he could shore up his dreadful defensive play and decision-making.
To borrow from the holy Bible, he giveth at one end of the ice and taketh away at the other.
Blomqvist made 27 saves, including some dandies, but continues to look outmatched if not overwhelmed at times by the speed of the NHL game. Not sure if the kid’s ready yet. As often as not, Joel just seems to be back on his heels, reacting instead of anticipating.
Of course, it doesn’t help to backstop a dreadfully porous defensive team.
Just have to make it official. Since he played his first game for us on January 25, the Pens are 4-2-1 with Boko Imama in the lineup and 0-5-1 when he hasn’t dressed.
BULLETIN
The Pens have recalled Tristan Jarry from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. In a corresponding move, Blomqvist was returned to the Baby Pens.
It appears the reverse PenguinPoop mojo is alive and well. (See article Time to Jettison Jarry.)
