Penguins Rally, Clip Capitals, 5-3

In a storyline eerily reminiscent of their cave-in loss to Toronto on Monday, the Penguins raced to a three-goal against the Capitals last night, only to blow it. However, instead of déjà vu all over again, the Pens rallied to eclipse their Metro rival, 5-3.

We opened the see-saw affair by boat-racing the Caps, who’d played the night before, while piling up a 16-7 edge in first-period on shots on goal. It didn’t hurt that our leg weary foe gifted us with three power plays during the opening 20 minutes, thank you very much. We made ‘em pay on two of ‘em, with Sidney Crosby doing the honors on both.

When the Pens widened their lead to 3-0 two minutes into the second frame on a net-front, chip-in by ex-Cap Anthony Mantha, they appeared to be in complete command. Ah, but as the old saying goes, looks can be deceiving. Dylan Strome beat Arturs Silovs with a wrister mid-period. Rasmus Sandin cut our lead to 3-2 at 14:55.

The potential soul crusher came five seconds before the horn, when heavyweight-turned-power-forward-extraordinaire Tom Wilson struck from a scramble to knot the score at 3-apiece.

The game was up for grabs until Trevor van Riemsdyk took a cross-checking penalty midway through the third period. After gathering up a wraparound feed from Ben Kindel, Evgeni Malkin slipped a gorgeous cross-seam pass to Bryan Rust to the right of the net. The “Rustache” beat Charlie Lindgren with a handsy redirect for what proved to be the game-winner.

Connor Dewar, playing his usual gritty, inspired game, applied the finishing touch with an empty-netter.

Puckpourri

With the victory, the 9-4-2 Pens snapped a two-game losing streak and moved back into a first-place tie with the Devils.

Thanks to his two goals, Super Sid snagged a share of the league-lead with Ducks sensation Cutter Gauthier with 11. Geno is tied for the top spot in helpers (17) with none other than Connor McDavid. What marvelous starts for our top guns.

The most intriguing stat line belonged to Rust, who tallied three points (1+2), yet finished a minus-1.

At the present, the Pens are living (precariously) through the power play. We went three-for-five last night and lead the NHL with a sizzling 35.9 percent conversion rate. Whodda thunk it a couple of years ago?

Our eighth-ranked PK’s been pretty good as well (84.4 percent).

Can’t say enough about Kindel. The Pens’ super-rookie collected his first two assists of the campaign, giving him four points in his last two games and five in his last four, including three goals. In particular, the seam pass he made to Sid on our opening goal was a thing of beauty. Hard, crisp and decisive.

I don’t think it’s hyperbole to suggest the kid possesses many of the same traits as Sid. And he’s only 18. What a find for Kyle Dubas and Wes Clark!

Tommy Novak likewise made a really nice play ‘n’ pass to set up Mantha’s doorstep tally.

The new line combinations all struggled a bit 5v5, although the fourth line of Dewar, Blake Lizotte and Joona Koppanen did drive possession.

If you’re looking for pleasant surprises, the revamped third defensive pair of Ryan Graves and Connor Clifton played a pretty good game. Individually, they had the second-best expected goals for percentage at 60.39 each. Ville Koivunen had the best (66.63%).

Unfortunately, the youngster’s still searching for his first NHL goal through 16 games, perhaps tempering those early expectations. The speed at the big-league level appears to be giving him issues.

Kris Letang had a bit of a rocky game. Poor decision-making reared its ugly head on several occasions.

Silovs wasn’t perfect, either, but good enough to get ‘er done.

It’ll be interesting to see if rookie Sergei Murashov gets a start this weekend when the Pens go back-to-back against the Devils (away on Saturday) and the Kings at home on Sunday.

I presume he will.