MARCH OF THE PENGUINS
Six third-period goals sink Canucks
PITTSBURGH Dragging them back into the fight didn’t work on this night.
Antoine Roussel made a name for himself last season with a willingness to drag the Vancouver Canucks into the fight — especially when they looked out of sorts and either needed a big hit or big goal to get them going.
J.T. Miller might be Roussel 2.0. And he was Wednesday, but it wasn’t nearly enough.
After constantly holding court during this NHL road trip to explain what his new team needed to do to have consistent and sustainable efforts, he dragged them out of the muck with a two-goal performance that was part skill and part will.
It helped the Canucks erase a two-goal deficit and build a 6-3 lead before giving up two goals in 68 seconds and finding themselves in a 6-6 struggle. Kris Letang’s slapper at 16:04 of the third period then settled the wild affair before Evgeni Malkin added an empty-net goal for an 8-6 Pittsburgh Penguins triumph and a deflating Canucks loss.
“It’s 6-3 and our team is feeling pretty good and we make a couple of individual mistakes and it’s 6-5 quick and then we felt the heat a little bit,” admitted Canucks coach Travis Green. “You could feel it in the building. All of a sudden, Malkin kind of took over the game a bit.
“We had a young group of forwards playing and they probably haven’t been in that kind of a scenario in the NHL — maybe ever — and it felt all of a sudden like we couldn’t make the play. We lost puck battles in our zone. And in those kind of games, you’ve got to pay the price to win. And I didn’t think we did.”
With the Penguins up 2-0 and
having their way with the Canucks, a spirited rush by defenceman Quinn Hughes and the willingness of Miller to go hard to the net lit the fuse on a night that included five Canuck even-strength goals.
Miller took the Hughes’ feed off his skate, quickly kicked it up to his stick and zipped a backhander up high for his third goal in the last four games. It was inspirational. Elias Pettersson then scored before Jake Virtanen connected off the rush and Adam Gaudette off a scramble for his first of two goals. Miller would connect again on a shot that went off a defenceman’s stick.
“Any time you give up eight,” you’ve got to look in the mirror,” said a sullen Miller.
NO SID, LOTS OF MALKIN
In eight games after losing captain Sidney Crosby to core-muscle surgery — and then centre Nick Bjugstad for six games with the same procedure — two things had to occur. Former Canucks centre Jared McCann had to step up to centre the second line and Malkin had to become a centre of attention.
The hulking centre has piled up 13 points in the stretch (4-9) without Crosby — including setting up the first two goals in the opening period in which he also went 6-1 in the faceoffs — to help the Penguins improve to 4-1-3 without their leader.
His five-point night included two goals and three assists, winning 61 per cent of his draws and gaining a new level of respect.