The Penguins halted their four-game losing streak last night with a 5-2 victory over the Kings at Crypto.com Arena.
Prior to the contest, black-and-gold skipper Dan Muse made a couple of key adjustments. He elevated Evgeni Malkin to the top line beside Sidney Crosby, in essence reforming the “Two-Headed Monster” of yore, and bumped Tommy Novak down to the second line.
Both units responded with big games.
On defense, he plugged reliable Spencer Stastney back into the top pairing next to Erik Karlsson and dropped Sam Girard to the second tandem beside Kaedan Korczak.
The reconfigured Pens promptly snagged a 2-0 lead on a pair of goals by Novak at 1:52 and 5:10 of the first period. The Kings struck back on a marker by 41-year-old Corey Perry mid-period and began to tilt the ice. However, a late power-play goal by Egor Chinakhov with 29 seconds remaining in the period restored our two-goal edge.
When the Kings countered with a power-play tally of their own just 3:07 into the second period to make it 3-2, I thought, “Uh oh, here we go…” But kid goalie Sergei Murashov stiffened and the Pens held serve until the 17-minute mark, when a Malkin missile from the top of the right circle glanced off Crosby and past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper.
The Kings continued to dominate territorially in the final frame. But Murashov stood firm and Crosby applied the icing to the cake with an empty-netter at 18:44.
PUCKPOURRI
It was a bit on an odd-duck win as the Kings ruled the fancy stats, including shot attempts (71-50), shots on goal (28-19), scoring chances (34-25) and high-danger chances (17-10). However, the Pens were opportunistic while at the same time managing to limit their egregious errors.
As the old saying goes, a win is a win.
Great to see Muse’s moves pay off. Indeed, the big boys had big nights. Geno picked up three assists to garner third-star honors. Novak’s two goals earned him a second star. Top-star honors went to Sid, who appropriately enough zipped past former Kings great Marcel Dionne and into sixth place on the all-time NHL scoring list. Fifth on the list, some 25 points ahead? Former Pens Cup hero and current special advisor Ron Francis.
Kris Letang registered two helpers and a game-best plus-3. Credit Tanger for simplifying his game and actually doing a fairly solid job of defending. Karlsson made a gem of a play to set our fourth goal in motion. Almost quietly, EK65 is averaging a point-per-game (17 in 17).
With six goals and 14 points in 15 games, Malkin continues to amaze at age 40. Especially when compared to old friend Alex Ovechkin, who has one goal in a like number of games.
Speaking of our DC brethren, in the maybe-we-shouldn’t-have-traded-the-guy department, defenseman Jack St. Ivany has five points (1+4) in five games since being claimed by the Caps on waivers.
Great to see Murashov enjoy a bounce-back game in goal. The kid stopped 26 of 28 shots for a .929 save percentage. Hopefully, this gives his sagging confidence a much-needed boost.
Ditto Chinakhov scoring that power-play goal. Still think with his shot and release he should be a fixture on the first power play.
Not that I don’t like the player, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the lengthy extension given to Novak. However, with seven goals and 14 points, Tommy’s produced and had a positive impact wherever Muse has deployed him.
UP NEXT
The Pens (6-9-2) bus over to Anaheim tonight to take on the Ducks (9-7-1). Then we’re off until Wednesday night when we face the struggling Sharks (7-11-1).
