The Penguins sprinted to a 5-1 lead over Mike Sullivan’s visiting Rangers yesterday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena, then held on for dear life in the closing minutes to escape with a 6-5 victory. Our sixth win in a row.
Our guys made it look oh-so-easy for the first 40 minutes or so. Perhaps too easy.
Anthony Mantha (2:27) and Noel Acciari (6:05) struck for the first of their two goals apiece to stake us to a 2-0 lead after one.
With our smothering forecheck working to perfection, it was more of the same in the second period. Near the 13-minute mark, Rangers netminder Jonathan Quick made a terrific sprawling save on Rickard Rakell, but vacated his net in the process. Easy pickins’ for Mantha, planted in the slot, on a follow-up feed from Rakell.
When Alexis Lafrenière countered for the Rangers late in the period on the power play, the Pens wasted little time in pushing back. Rakell struck for a power-play goal just 80 seconds into the final period. Twenty ticks later, Acciari notched his second goal of the night from the doorstep to make it 5-1, Pens.
Game over, right?
Wellllll, not exactly.
Harkening back to their December collapses, the Pens took their foot off the proverbial gas pedal and began to play fast and loose with the biscuit. None faster and looser than Evgeni Malkin’s attempted pass into the slot while working on a mid-period, man-advantage. Vladislav Gavrikov alertly picked off his countryman’s well-intentioned but errant feed and sent Pittsburgh native Vincent Trocheck steaming in for a breakaway shorty.
Then the ubiquitous Gavrikov struck on a one-timer from the right circle at 15:15. Five-three, Pens, but I’m startin’ to get nervous.
Fortunately, when Sully pulled Quick for an extra attacker, rookie Ben Kindel made like Jake Guentzel and wired the puck into the empty Rags net with 2:32 to play to restore our three-goal cushion.
Turns out, we needed every bit.
Lafrenière tallied his second of the afternoon at 18:53. With 11 seconds to go, Will Cuylle scored against a suddenly vulnerable Stuart Skinner to make it 6-5. Turning a sure thing into a nail-biter at the end.
Puckpourri
My word, is Mantha smokin’. The big guy’s got five goals and eight points in our past four games, including a pair of two-goal efforts.
Our fourth line of Acciari (two goals), Blake Lizotte (two assists) and Connor Dewar (two helpers) was at its buzz-saw best, collecting six points and finishing a combined plus-6.
Pikers by comparison, our top unit collected three points, two (1+1) by RikRak. Some fellow named Crosby snapped a two-game pointless jag with an assist. (Yes, I’m being silly.)
Speaking of streaks, following a prolonged 19-game goalless skein, Kindel’s busted out in style with four goals in his last three outings. He’s got the same number of goals (a dozen) as Trocheck, who collected three points and always seems to torture us.
Rutger McGroarty (an assist) has been most noticeable since his recall, and for all the right reasons. It’s going to be tough to return him to Wilkes.
Without fanfare, Erik Karlsson collected his 700th career NHL assist.
With only 15 saves on 20 shots, Skinner had his first subpar outing in over a month. In fairness, it was a bit of a collective effort as we didn’t do a great job of insulating him, especially in the closing moments. But a win is a win, and Big Stu’s 8-1 in his past nine starts.
Kris Letang was placed on LTIR with a fractured foot. He’s expected to miss a month. If there’s a silver lining to the misfortune, Tanger’s injury coincides with the Olympics break.
Connor Clifton subbed back in and did what I thought was his usual solid job, dishing out three hits and blocking four shots. He had a nice keep-in at the point, which led directly to Acciari’s first goal.
Ilya Solovyov (plus-2) was likewise sound in limited duty (13:27 TOI). He’s a plus-5 in his two games wearing the black-and-gold.
The Pens (28-14-11, 67 points) continue to occupy second place in the Metro, two points up on the Isles and, most importantly, six up on the CBJ and Caps.
We wrap up our pre-Olympics slate with back-to-backers against the Sens and Isles on Monday and Tuesday evenings, with latter coming on Long Island. Obviously a HUGE game with four-point implications.
Then we trek to the Niagara frontier to take on the piping-hot Sabres on Thursday night.
We’re 14-3-2 since snapping our eight-game losing streak, 13-2-2 since Christmas. That’s what I call making up ground!
Oh, the Pens celebrated the 10th anniversary of the 2016 Cup triumph. My goodness, where does the time go?
Amazing that several members of that team (Sid, Geno, Tanger and Rusty) are still here…and still productive!