PENS HOLD OFF ISLANDERS, 6-3
Yes, some of the names are different, but result is same against first-place Islanders
The Penguins were bracing for a battle Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena.
The New York Islanders were on fire since steamrolling the Penguins a month ago. Their starting goalie hadn’t lost since January. And the home team had to plug in yet another call-up after a sixth forward went on one of the inactive lists.
A regulation loss would drop the Penguins six points back from first place.
“They’re a team we’re chasing in the standings. They’re a team that … plays hard all over the ice,” Bryan Rust said. “So we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”
And yet, somehow, the Penguins made their 6-3 win look like a cakewalk.
Before the game even reached its midway point, the Penguins had run up the score on the NHL’s stingiest club and sent Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin to the showers.
Five Penguins players tallied multiple points in the runaway win, including Rust, whose fourth career NHL hat trick extended his points streak to six games.
When the final buzzer
blared, the Penguins were within two points of the Islanders and Washington Capitals, who are tied atop the East Division standings.
Considering the opponent, the stakes and the depleted lineup the Penguins were forced to employ due to injuries, this was arguably their biggest win of the season.
“When your team goes through adversity from an injury standpoint, it can be a bit of a rallying cry. It has the tendency to create camaraderie. The team becomes the priority,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s a fun dynamic because guys are playing hard for one another because they understand the circumstances, as well.”
The Islanders were one of the league’s hottest teams since beating the Penguins, 2-0, Feb. 28 on Long Island, starting a stretch in which they won 12 of 14.
Sorokin took an eightgame winning streak with him into the Islanders crease Saturday. He had permitted just 11 goals over that span while posting a .944 save percentage, including that 20-save shutout of the Penguins on Feb. 28.
In this game, the Penguins beat Sorokin on their first shot. Then their second.
Freddy Gaudreau, who over the last week has provided a spark amid the myriad injuries up front, scored his first goal with the Penguins nearly six minutes in.
It happened after a beautiful breakout. Tristan Jarry stopped the puck behind the net then zipped it over to Marcus Pettersson. He sent it up the left wall to Colton Sceviour, whose perfect chip pass into the neutral zone allowed Sam Lafferty, who got the primary assist, and Gaudreau to attack with speed.
“Unbelievable play on the wall by Scevs,” Lafferty said. “That’s an incredibly hard play to make as a winger and he couldn’t have put it in a better spot. He made my job pretty easy. I just had to get it over to Freddy and he did the rest.”
A few minutes later, an innocent Evan Rodrigues wrister from the left dot fooled Sorokin. The goalie glanced at the bench but coach Barry Trotz kept him in.
The Penguins would chase the Russian with two power-play goals early in the second period. Sidney Crosby backhanded a shot in off of defenseman Scott Mayfield to make it 3-0. Less than two minutes later, Rust scored from the slot.
Sorokin made five saves on nine shots before being pulled for Semyon Varlamov. Rust welcomed Varlamov to the game moments later by roofing a rebound.
Those three goals in a span of four minutes, 29 seconds gave the Penguins a 5-0 lead.
Mathew Barzal and Anthony Beauvillier chipped away at it and Jordan Eberle scored with the goalie pulled to add a little late suspense. But Rust burst out of the penalty to box to bury an empty-netter and put an end to the comeback bid.
“He’s a guy that likes when the stakes are high. He likes to make a difference,” Kris Letang said of Rust. “It’s fun to see him get rewarded with a hat trick.”
Jarry made 29 saves to earn his 12th win in 17 starts since Valentine’s Day.
The Penguins were without Mark Jankowski, who was placed on the NHL’s
COVID protocol list prior to the game. That meant they were without three of their top four centers against the Islanders. Slotting in at center behind Crosby on Saturday were Jared McCann, Gaudreau and rookie Radim Zohorna.
During their three-game winning streak, the Penguins got goals from surprising sources. Gaudreau. Zohorna. Zach Aston-Reese. And two from Rodrigues.
Letang, while praising the fill-ins for their contributions in recent games, briefly spaced out on Anthony Angello’s name. The alternate captain quickly corrected himself, but it spoke volumes about the constant personnel churnthis season.
“We knew we had a lot of depth coming into the season, with a guy like Gaudreau or [Drew] O’Connor that comes up,” he said. “We have two big guys that can throw the body around with Zohorna and … Sorry, I had a blank.Um, Angello.”
The power play also continued to click, even with Kasperi Kapanen joining Evgeni Malkin on injured reserve. The Penguins went 2 for 4 against a strong Islanders penalty kill and have converted 27.9% of their opportunitiesin March.
With the win, the Penguins improved to 5-2-0 against the Islanders this season. The Islanders are 20-6-2 against the rest of the stacked EastDivision.
The Penguins and Islanders face off again Monday at PPG Paints Arena. It is the last of eight games against each other in the regularseason.