Malkin’s goal nets 5-4 victory in OT
controlled momentum, we made good decisions with the puck, we had numbers back, we stayed on the right side of the puck and the right side of people for a lot of the period.”
Then came the second period. And with it, a parade to the penalty box. The Penguins were whistled for four infractions over those 20 minutes, including Sidney Crosby’s four-minute highsticking penalty that led to tying and go-ahead goals for the Rangers.
“You never like being in the box and seeing a couple go in,” Crosby said. “It’s not a great feeling.”
The Penguins are second in the league in penalty minutes per game, averaging 17:08 per contest. They had 16 Tuesdaynight.
“We know what the rules are, but we took some stupid penalties, myself included,” Hagelinsaid.
By the time the second period started to wind down, the Penguins were probably lucky to only be down one goal.
“Thisgame is all about momentum and, when the [other] team gets momentum, they can’t have it for more than 2-3 shifts,” Patric Hornqvist said. “They had it for probably 10 shifts there, and that’s what happened, theyscored three goals.”
Both Hornqvist and Sullivan, though, pointed to the Penguins’ 5-on-3 penalty kill at the end of the second period as a turning point. It lasted a full 1:44, with the Rangers barely sniffing a scoringopportunity.
“That’s huge for us,” Hornqvist said. “Right there, the benchwas fired up.”
A few seconds later, Hornqvist turned that energy into a game-tying goal, this time with the Penguins capitalizingon a power-play chance.
“For me, those are the types of moments that good power plays show themselves, when you score in those situations,” Sullivan said.
The Penguins entered the third period with plenty of momentum (and even a little leftoverpower-play time), but David Desharnais’ second goal of the game put them down, 4-3, and Sullivan said — even if it was better than the second period — he didn’t necessarilylike what he saw.
“Ithink in the third period, we were pressing to try to get that tying goal, and, sometimes, when you do that, you become a high-risk hockey team,” Sullivan said. “We gave up a number of real high-qualitychances because we were pressing. I think the lesson is I don’t think this team has to press. We can score a goal, we had plenty of timeto score a goal.”
He was right. The Penguins had plenty of time to score a goal, and they came pretty close to using all of it. Eventually, Crosby did what only Crosby can do, banking a puck off Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist and into the net from behind the goal line to tie the score with less thana minute remaining.
It’s not the first time Crosby has scored a goal like that. It’s not by accident.
“He works on it every single practice,” Hornqvist said. “Every time the rebound goes in the corner, he goes and gets it and tries to bank it off the goalie. He’s the best player in the world, and it’s crazy he can do that stuff, but I’m not surprised.”
By that point, all that was left to do was for Malkin and Kessel to capitalizie from a bad Rangers turnover in overtime, and the Penguins escaped New York with their second road win of the season. It might not end up on any season-ending highlight reels (except, perhaps, Crosby’s tying goal), but it counts for two points in the standings just like the rest of them