Penguins Vanquish Golden Knights, 3-2, in OT

A while back, Wright’s Gym member Dan Mazur had a premonition.

Something along the lines of, “The Penguins are going to recall Tristan Jarry, they’re going to go on a hot streak and mess up their chances for a lottery pick.”

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your stance, Dan is proving to be prescient.

In a performance only slightly less remarkable than that of Lazarus, Jarry stopped 35 of 37 shots to backstop the undermanned and, at times, overwhelmed Pens to a 3-2 overtime victory over the visiting Golden Knights. A team that had trampled us out in Vegas only a few days ago and likely would’ve done so again had it not been for Jarry’s heroics.

While the resurgent goalie was doing a pretty fair imitation of a brick wall in our net, Sidney Crosby continued his extraordinary play with a pair of goals, his second-straight two-goal effort.

The first came on a redirect from his knees while working on a power play at 17:48 of the first period to stake us to a 1-0 lead. Three minutes into the second period, Sid found a lane and smoked Vegas netminder Ilya Samsonov like a sausage with an ice-hugging wrister.

Sid performed various other signs and wonders throughout the game, including an extended sequence when he played keep-away with the puck with his skates, soccer-style, without a stick.

More on our captain in a bit.

Although he finished minus-1, I thought kid defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok played a terrific game. He’s mobile, alert, cool under fire and passes the puck crisply. I don’t think he looked the least bit out of place on the top pairing beside Kris Letang.

On a night when most of our guys were heavily underwater, the former ‘Yote had an expected goals for percentage (xGF%) of 58.24, tops among our defensemen.

Looks like Kyle Dubas snagged a keeper.

Okay, so truth be told, Erik Karlsson drives me nervous (to borrow from rock legend Alice Cooper) with his fast ‘n’ loose defensive play. But it’s also very evident why this guy won three Norris Trophies. When he decides to take the puck and go, nobody can stop him. And the silky Swede’s absolutely lethal from the right circle, where he scored the OT winner.

This is way unofficial, but it seems to me this is his third or fourth goal from that spot.

I wonder if some of his issues are rooted in being too deferential to his teammates and/or the Pens’ system? It seems EK65 is at his best and most volatile when he freelances. That’s when his extraordinary talents not only bubble to the surface, but overflow.

Back to our captain. I’ve long ago run out of adjectives to describe Crosby, although super-human comes to mind. He’s 37 years old, playing on a team that’s hopelessly out of playoff contention, yet he pours himself out virtually every game like it’s a Stanley Cup Final match. His dedication is to his craft is off the charts.

Sid’s so consistently, subtly brilliant in all aspects of the game, I almost think it works against him when it comes to getting the recognition he so richly deserves.

Truly, treasure Sid while we have him. There’ll never be another like him.

Ever.

While we’re talking generational talents, how about Evgeni Malkin’s sweet backhand pass to open space on the OT winner? Geno put the puck on a platter for Karlsson to rip home.

Vegas scored the game-tying goal with seven seconds left in regulation, thanks to Tomas Hertl’s posterior, which was pretty much planted in Jarry’s face. No way Tristan could see the shot, let alone stop it.

I’ll close this stream-of-consciousness recap with an observation. Has Boko Imama become a talisman of sorts for our Pens? Although used sparingly by coach Mike Sullivan (5:01 ATOI), we’re 6-3-1 when the rugged forward dresses and 0-6-1 when he doesn’t.