Bonino scores hat trick
in Winnipeg from the first meeting between the teams this season, when Malkin took down Wheeler with a borderline hit. Malkin admitted the hit was “not great” and agreed to drop his gloves out of respect for Wheeler.
“I respect this guy, his leadership,” Malkin said. “He’s a great hockey player. I was ready, but it was not my greatest fight.”
Reasonable minds might think that would settle the hostilities, but apparently it did not. Before Malkin and Wheeler could even get comfortable in the penalty box, Tom Sestito and Chris Thorburn got into a fight of their own.
That wasn’t the end of the night for Sestito — but it was close, as he was given a game-misconduct penalty later in the period for a hit from behind on Toby Enstrom.
Still, Sullivan said he had no regrets about adding Sestito to the lineup for the first time since December.
“We would’ve liked to have kept him in the game, but certainly he’s a guy that brings a physical element to our team, and he has the ability to create some anxiety,” Sullivan said. “I think he has the ability to give our players a certain comfort level when they’re on the ice.”
Once the two teams settled down and actually played hockey, the goals came fast and easy. The Jets went up, 3-2, in a first period that was largely defined by the two fights and Sestito’s hit on Enstrom.
When the Penguins came out in the second period, they were determined to, as Sullivan often says, “play their game.”
“Especially this rink, they come out pretty hard,” Bonino said. “Then you add Geno and Tommy’s fights to that, it’s definitely a bit of an emotional roller coaster there. I think we were able to settle down in the second and third, play a little bit more structured, a little bit more smart with the puck and harder defensively.
“When we did that, we limited them and we were going the other way quicker.”
Malkin also played like a more dominant offensive player once he got his pugilistic responsibilities out of the way in the first, scoring a breakaway goal late in the first and adding another midway through the second — as well as assisting on Justin Schultz’s secondperiod goal to complete the “Gordie Howe hat trick” of a fight, goal and assist in the same game.
Though if you ask Malkin, he’d like to stick to the latter two from now on.
“One fight is enough for me,” he said.
The Penguins scored three goals — from Schultz, Bonino and Malkin — in a one-minute span midway through the second that turned a one-goal deficit into a two-goal lead.
Bonino added his third goal of the night later in the period and brought on a small flurry of hats from the Penguins fans in attendance at the MTS Centre. Sullivan joked that he doesn’t expect a hat trick out of Bonino every night, but an increased scoring presence from the Penguins third line would be a pretty valuable weapon as the playoffs approach.
“We’re hopeful moving forward here down the stretch that he starts to catch fire offensively and his line, in particular, produces for us offensively,” Sullivan said.