The Penguins lost to the Blue Jackets last night, 5-4, in a see-saw affair that was decided in a shootout. In the process, snapping our feel-good, four-game winning streak and sending the 15,261 PPG Paints Arena partisans home a tinge disappointed.
The game actually commenced on a high note for the locals. Anthony Mantha slipped a pretty cross-ice pass to a trailing Ryan Shea and No. 5 did the rest, snapping the biscuit past Elvis Merzlikins just 59 seconds in.
Despite our jack-rabbit start, the CBJ controlled the play while piling up a 16-7 advantage in first-period shots on goal. At 15:44, Charlie Coyle got body position on Shea and steered in a rebound from the blue paint.
Coach Dan Muse challenged, claiming goalie interference (which I tend to agree with), but it was all for naught and we were issued a delay-of-game penalty.
Still, our plucky Pens killed the penalty and retook the lead at the 18-minute-mark on a bullet of a goal off the rush by Mantha, who used a deceptive, toe-drag move to alter the angle of the shot.
All things considered, we were fortunate to be up, 2-1, after 20 minutes.
Although the Pens leveled the ice surface somewhat in the second period, the Blue Jackets knotted the score late on a goal by Dmitri Voronkov, wide-open in the low slot. Arturs Silovs had no chance.
When the CBJ proceeded to snatch a 4-2 lead early in the third period on tallies by Yegor Chinakhov and Voronkov, things looked bleak for our boys. But once more they showed a ton of moxie when the chips were down.
With just over five minutes left in regulation and the final seconds ticking off a power play, Kris Letang beat Merzlikins blocker side through traffic with a scorcher from center point. With a shade over three minutes remaining and Silovs freshly pulled for an extra attacker, Evgeni Malkin fed Bryan Rust to the left of the net with a cross-slot pass. Rusty banked the puck in off Merzlikins’ back from a sharp angle to knot the score at 4-all.
The Pens nearly pulled the game out of the fire a minute into overtime when a Letang shot trickled through Merzlikins to the goal line. Unfortunately, Ivan Provorov arrived as Johnny-on-the-spot to sweep the puck from harm’s way.
On to the shootout. Both clubs scored on their first two opportunities, with young guns Kent Johnson and Adam Fantilli doing the honors for the CBJ and Rust and Sidney Crosby countering. But Malkin couldn’t match countryman Kirill Marchenko’s five-hole snipe in the third round and the CBJ prevailed.
Puckpourri
In what’s become an increasing (and potential worrisome?) trend, the Pens were again heavily outshot, both in attempts (76-62) and actual shots on goal (41-30). All things considered, we were probably fortunate to come away with a point.
Malkin (two assists) and his big-boy linemates continue to produce, combining for a goal and five points. In addition to his primary assist on Rust’s marker, Geno set up Mantha’s goal with an equally pretty feed.
Speaking of No. 39, with three goals and five points in his past four games, Anthony’s heating up. A most welcome development coming off ACL surgery.
We were kid-less last night, as Ben Kindel and Harrison Brunicke had the night off. Philip Tomasino slotted in for the former while Connor Clifton subbed for the latter. Righty Matt Dumba replaced injured Caleb Jones on the port side.
Matt got involved early, blasting Boone Jenner to the ice with a bristling shoulder check. The CBJ captain immediately challenged and a spirited tussle ensued, with no clear-cut victor. It was our first fight of the year.
The Dumba-Clifton pairing finished a combined minus-three with three blocked shots and six hits, four by Clifton. Metrics-wise, the duo had a rough night. So did our defense in general, not to mention our team defense.
With the notable exception of the Blake Lizotte–Noel Acciari–Connor Dewar combo, our forward lines were heavily underwater as well.
Rickard Rakell departed early in the third period with an apparent hand injury. Sure hope it’s not serious. Filip Hållander bumped up to the top line and the unit promptly perked up, possession wise.
Up next, the Pens (6-2-1) host the Blues (3-4-1) on Monday night.
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Update,
According to puckpedia Rakell is out month-to-month - hand injury (not listed as IR yet), Koivunen is up.
Site-related comment: have you changed providers or something? I have noticed when i view the site from my android phone, I have to manually refresh the page to get the latest version, and that is unusual.
and from the desktop, the ticker things look really jerky and weird. Was better last season.
Hello keeger.
Thanks for reaching out concerning the site. I'm embarrassed to say I don't know if we've changed providers on not. I'm strictly involved on the writing side, while one of our former bloggers is kind enough to handle the technical issues on a volunteer basis.
I can certainly do some checking.
Thanks for caring...and reading.
Rick
Rick,
This is how I saw the game
Shea’s opened the scoring thanks to CBJ giving lots of room to both Mantha and Shea. Give both Penguins credit for not rushing their play but patiently letting things develop. Also give Shea credit for a good hard snipe over Merzlinkins
Coyle’s G started off a lazy-bad play by Rakell to fumble the pass from Clifton, starting the Jackets transition game. The G itself was the result of Silovs’ poor rebound control (which have noted before). The fluttering shot from Fabbro hit Silovs high on the blocker side of his chest and fell to his feet. Coyle, playing like many Penguins’ fans wished a Penguins would do over the past 8 seasons crashed the net ala Patric Hornqvist. It was a rebound play and Coyle jammed it home. I wish it would have been interference, but it wasn’t – it was just poor Goaltending.
Give credit to all three of Geno’s line on Mantha’s G to put the Pens back up 2-1. Brazeau made a nice adjustment to reach back and bump the puck forward to his pivot before any Jackets could pounce on a loose puck. Then the big Russian stormed the puck through the neutral zone and feathered a nice pass to Mantha to put him inside the zone. Finally, Mantha’s deceptively quick release of his shot after having just pulled the puck off his backhand to forehand caught Merzlinkins napping.
Then the roof caved in, and Columbus scored 3 Gs
The 2nd Jackets’ G was the result of just plain hard forechecking by the visitors and Voronkov paying attention to the book on Silovs’ (shoot high).
The Jackets’ 3rd G was the combination of Chinakhov following Voronkov’s lead and keeping in mind the scouting report on Silovs’ (shoot high) and Silovs being way too far off his angles giving about a third of the net away.
The Jackets’ 4th G was another good, hard play by the visitors. Rust and Clifton did make bad plays in the O-Zone but it was Voronkov’s lunch pail crashing the net that really earned him that G.
Letang stemmed the run of Jackets G on a PP. Silovs was given a gift by the official scorer and awarded an assist on the play. However, his contribution to the G was nil. Letang skated the play out of his zone and found Novak with lots of room to work and moving with speed. Novak gained the zone and wound his way to the outside, took a shot that Merzlinkins stopped (with that shot and save, I am not sure I would have given Silovs an A). Novak, who I am not fan of, made a good play to follow his own shot up. He picked up the loose puck, swung behind the net and found Letang open in the high slot. The RHD drove home a slap shot. Hallander was more deserving of an A on the play than Silovs as he provided a nice screen to distract the CBJ Goalie.
Loading up a line with Crosby, Malkin, and Rust, the Penguins evened the game with Geno once again seeing the entire ice and finding Rust wide open on the back side of Merzlinkins. And Rust used the CBJ’s Goalie’s back side to bounce the puck into the net to tie the game.
That sent the game into OT, then a SO. Unfortunately, in the SO, our Penguins’ biggest weakness was exposed. Silovs didn’t stop a single CBJ attempt and the home crowd went home disappointed as a team that was spanked by the Capitals the night before (5-1) took home the 2 Pnt. prize.
Hey Other Rick,
Thanks for filling in so many of the details my recap omitted, along with your analysis. Always appreciated, my friend.
Rick