Malkin triggers late rally
comeback, improbably enough, were planted by the officials, on and off the ice.
Winger Patric Hornqvist, who competed at a level that suggested pure adrenaline was oozing from his pores, said he was motivated by having a goal disallowed in the second period.
Malkin, meanwhile, ratcheted up his game after being assessed a tripping minor at 4:10 of the third, contributing a goal and an assist in the final 14 minutes.
Coach Mike Sullivan credited those two, along with wingers Phil Kessel and Chris Kunitz, for jumpstarting and sustaining the Penguins’ third-period surge. He also singled out goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who made 32 saves and kept the idea of a comeback viable, even when his teammates didn’t look capable of staging one.
“[Fleury] really kept us in that game,” defenseman Ian Cole said.
For a while, though, it didn’t look as if the Penguins could wipe out San Jose’s lead as their collective scoring touch had deserted them for the equivalent of nearly two full games.
But Malkin, just 37 seconds after serving an offensive-zone tripping minor, beat Jones with a shot from between the hash marks at 6:47 to stop the Penguins’ drought at 117 minutes, 57 seconds.
“I feel [the penalty] was maybe not the right call,” Malkin said.
Hornqvist lost an apparent goal when a video review determined he had knocked a puck into the San Jose net with his hand, not the shaft of his stick, at 13:19 of the second.
He didn’t agree, but channeled his dismay in a most productive manner.
Not long after Malkin tied the score, Hornqvist hit Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon in the left corner, allowing Matt Cullen to collect the puck and slip it to Scott Wilson, who went to the net and beat Jones with a backhander at 9:01.
“I don’t think Dillon saw me there,” Hornqvist said. “He was kind of puck-watching in the corner.”
Hornqvist must have had a little anger left over, because he found it in himself to bounce what proved to be the winner off of both posts and across the goal line behind Jones at 14:02.
“Not a pretty goal,” Malkin said. “But very important.”
Mostly because it gave the four defensemen who finished the game — Justin Schultz, Trevor Daley, Brian Dumoulin and Cole — a tangible payoff for their work under demanding circumstances.
“I thought they all did a terrific job,” Sullivan said.
So, during the final period, did their teammates.
And they have a most memorable victory to show for it.