Coming off their triumphant four-game western swing and several days’ rest, the Penguins were sluggish during the first period of last night’s tilt with the Blackhawks at PPG Paints Arena. Perhaps understandably so.
When Connor Murphy struck for Chicago from the high slot off the rush midway through the frame? I kinda had a flashback to that fateful night in April 2023 when a downtrodden Hawks squad dashed our playoff hopes.
That was then and this is now.
Pulling themselves up by the proverbial bootstraps, the Pens knotted the score a couple minutes later on a greasy goal by our fourth line, with Connor Dewar doing the honors. Disappointed with their effort, the Pens purposed to be better during the first intermission.
Boy, were they ever.
With threshing-machine precision, they pounded four pucks past poor Arvid Soderblom during the second period, including two goals within a 31-second span.
Rookie Ben Kindel kicked off the cavalcade of offense at 5:53 of the period, wiring the puck through Soderblom’s wickets off a gorgeous pass from Anthony Mantha.
Next up, Egor Chinakhov. “Chinny” took a spin-o-rama backhand feed off the sideboards from Evgeni Malkin, danced down Main Street and past Hawks defender Artyom Levshunov and buried the biscuit.
Half a minute later, Kindel sprang Mantha on a breakaway. Big Mo beat Soderblom on the backhand to make it 4-1, good guys.
Ryan Shea capped the scoring at 19:30 with a bomb of a one-timer from the top of the right circle, courtesy of a perfect table-setting feed from newcomer Ilya Solovyov.
Dewar struck for his second of the night at 13:59 of the third, followed in short order by a Connor Bedard tally to make the final count 6-2.
Puckpourri
How dramatic was the Pens’ turnaround? In the first period, we attempted 10 shots to the Hawks 21, according to Natural Stat Trick. The rest of the way? We out-attempted the visitors, 74-24, and outshot ‘em 36-11!
Mantha had a goal (his 17th) and two helpers to earn top-star billing. With his two goals, Dewar snagged the second star. “Kid Kinde” (1+1) was named third-star.
Did you know Mantha is the grand-nephew of former Pens great Jean Pronovost?
Like the way the team compensated for Bryan Rust’s absence. Justin Brazeau was elevated to the top line. Instead of plugging in slow-footed vet Kevin Hayes, we recalled Rutger McGroarty from Wilkes to fill the open slot. With Rutger wreaking havoc around the Hawks’ net, the third line didn’t miss a beat.
Solovyov made his black-and-gold debut, manning the portside on the third pairing with Shea sliding to his off (right) side. The rugged newcomer was a plus-three on the night with the aforementioned assist in 16:51 of ice time, not to mention a crunching hit on Frank Nazar. Two giveaways as well.
My personal take? I thought he looked a tad slow and behind the play at times. Perfectly understandable, given it was his first game in a Pens jersey. PP colleague Caleb DiNatale, who attended the game, came away impressed, as did most other observers. I should add that I’m a Connor Clifton fan, so I may have a bit of a bias going on.
Still, Solovyov may have uttered the quote of the season during a postgame interview. When asked about his style, Ilya replied, “Kill the play along the wall.”
Shades of Ivan Drago’s “You vill lose,” in Rocky IV.
I digress.
Almost quietly, Arturs Silovs has posted a .925 save percentage over his past five starts.
Wanna guess how many points Sidney Crosby and his linemates have scored the past two games? If you answered “zero,” you’d be correct. Yet we still tallied nine goals combined.
That spells screams T-E-A-M.
Don’t look now, but Dewar has 13 goals (tied with Geno for fifth-most) and has an outside shot at 20. For goodness sake, extend the guy! (Geno, too!)
Standings-wise, the Pens (27-14-11, 65 points) are tied with the Islanders for second in the Metro…with two games in hand.
The more important number? Our six-point bulge over the fourth-place Caps, with three games in hand.
Up next, we host Mike Sullivan’s plummeting Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
