Penguins hang on to beat Devils
outscored by five goals in the third period.
“I’ve never been through an experience like that,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s not an easy one to react to … for me, not a lot went right for us [in the third]. We know that. We’ve got to be a whole lot better in a lot of areas to close out games and not put ourselves in those types of positions.”
A game that ended so strangely couldn’t have started better. The Penguins blitzed the struggling and short-handed New Jersey Devils with three goals on the first eight shots and four goals in the first 20 minutes to chase Wedgewood.
Trade deadline addition Jeff Carter scored his first goal as a member of the Penguins.
Defenseman Mike Matheson continued to show his offensive upside with his fifth goal of the season.
Rust raced ahead on an odd-man rush, set up perfectly by a long indirect pass from Sidney Crosby. Dumoulin was the beneficiary of that lucky bounce.
And that was just in the first period.
By the time the Penguins went to the dressing room for the seond intermission, nine skaters, five defensemen and even goalie Tristan Jarry had registered a point. Evan Rodrigues and Crosby finished the game atop the stat sheet with a goal and an assist each.
Throughout the Crosby era, the Penguins have been one of the NHL’s more-potent offensive machines. Their 159 goals on the season trails only the Washington Capitals (163 goals) for the most in the NHL.
But then came the third period, a reminder of what can happen when an offensive juggernaut takes a breath — even against an inferior opponent.
“We let up a decent amount,” Rust said. “They pushed real hard. I think we definitely got on our heels a bit.”
With the Penguins leading 6-0, New Jersey’s Nico Hischier converted on a 5on-3 power play to put the Devils on the board just 41 seconds into the third. Special teams factored into the second Devils tally, when Yegor Sharangovich raced ahead to score a shorthanded goal. From there, the game spiraled.
“Those are two big goals for them where they didn’t really have to earn those by working hard and wearing us down,” Dumoulin said. “Those are areas we can clean up obviously.”
The Devils went on to rack up eight shots from the slot in the third period and six rush chances, according to stats from Sportlogiq.
After the Devils trimmed the lead to 6-3, Crosby’s goal briefly stopped the bleeding. But New Jersey eventually closed the gap to just one goal with about 40 seconds left. On New Jersey’s sixth goal, it looked like Jarry might have been thinking about the empty net on the other end of the rink when he got caught out of position.
With so many goals in such a short period of time, it’s hard to lump them all into one succinct narrative. It was a mix of human nature tricking the Penguins into thinking they could coast, some sloppy defense and moments of subpar goaltending.
“They were playing with nothing to lose,” Dumoulin said. “They were getting up into the play. Their defensemen were joining the play. We spent a little bit too much time in our D zone.”
Though the Penguins limped to the finish, they hung on for two critical points at a time in the season when any win is a good one.
With the win, the Penguins (29-14-3, 61 points) remain in third place in the East Division standings. They are currently one point behind the first-place Washington Capitals and New York Islanders.
The three-game series against the Devils continues with games Thursday and Saturday before a critical two-game series against the Bruins begins Sunday. Taking care of business will be important for the Penguins now, with just 10 games left in the season and points always precious in the parity-packed East Division.