Penguins Nip Sharks in Shootout, 3-2

The Penguins harpooned the Sharks last night, 3-2, at SAP Center in a game that went to a shootout.

The Pens grabbed the lead at 8:57 of the opening frame, shortly after a penalty (not elbowing) to old friend Jacob Trouba expired. After playing pitch-and-catch with Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin placed a perfect feed on a platter for Sam Girard, who’d hopped over the boards and was racing toward the high slot. Girard stepped into the puck with a full head of steam and laced a slap shot past Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov.

Following a scoreless second period that the Sharks generally controlled, Ben Kindel padded our lead to 2-0 with a power-play tally at 3:28 of the third. Erik Karlsson unleashed a shot from the top of the left circle that thudded off Askarov’s pads and onto the stick blade of Rickard Rakell, who pickle-stabbed it to Kindel to the left of the net. The kid buried it top shelf for his fourth goal of the season.

Unfortunately, the Pens couldn’t protect the lead. Uber-talented Macklin Celebrini found a soft spot in the Pens’ d-zone coverage and whipped a wrister past Sergei Murashov to close the gap to 2-1 at 11:32. Four minutes later, Celebrini set up hulking Mason Marchment for the game-tying tally.

Neither team was able to cash in during overtime, sending the game to a shootout. Hardly the Pens’ domain. However, Kindel scored on our first attempt with an ice-hugging bullet. At the far end of the ice, Murashov thwarted the imposing trio of Celebrini, Ivar Stenberg and Will Smith to earn the extra point for our Pens.

PUCKPOURRI

With the victory, the Pens went 2-1 on the west coast trip and escaped the Metro cellar…at least for now.

The game was dead-even in terms of shot activity, with the Pens holding a slight edge in shot attempts (67-66) while the Sharks prevailed in shots on goal (36-35). However, the Pens held the high ground in scoring chances (41-30) and high-danger chances (15-10) by considerable margins.

Murashov turned aside 33 of 35 shots in a virtuoso performance to garner top-star honors, outdueling countryman Askarov in the process. Great to see the kid rebounding after a tough stretch.

Rutger McGroarty suited up and did some nice work on the fourth line. Nick Robertson was elevated to the second line, bumping Hendrix Lapierre to the press box. Tommy Novak centered the recast (and troublesome) third line for Ville Koivunen and Justin Brazeau.

The freshly minted Malkin-Sidney Crosby-Rakell line continued to cook, piling up an 18-10 edge in 5v5 shot attempts and an equally impressive 13-5 advantage in 5v5 shots on goal. With 17 points in 17 games, Geno continues his point-per-game pace, trailing only Karlsson (19 points) in the team scoring race.

With 10 points (1+9) in 19 games, Letang is quietly on pace for a 44-point season. Not too shabby for a 39-year-old, let alone a third-pairing defenseman. Kindel is producing at a .5 point-per-game clip. Roughly a 40-point pace.

I’ll be curious to see how the newly formed second line of Kindel centering for Robertson and Egor Chinakhov evolves. The latter in particular enjoyed an outstanding game, firing off four shots on goal and 10 shot attempts. A near-miss off the iron as well.

Dan Muse re-configured his power-play units and, at first blush, appeared to hit on two winning combinations. The top unit featured Crosby, Karlsson, Kindel, Novak and Rakell. The second, Brazeau, Chinakhov, Koivunen, Letang and Malkin.

UP NEXT

The Pens (7-10-2) host the Senators (11-6-2) on Saturday night. Then they’re off till the following Thursday, when the Blues (8-8-2) come to town. I wonder if there’ll be a shakeup vis-à-vis a trade or two during the layoff.

We’re presently six points out of a playoff spot.