NHL - Penguins - Round Up November 18-23, 2016

Penguins @ NY Islanders 3-2 OT - Friday, November 18, 2016

Kris Letang scored 1:24 into overtime to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 3-2 win against the New York Islanders at Barclays Center. Letang, who also had an assist, was the recipient of a brilliant pass from Sidney Crosby and one-timed a shot near the left post past goalie Jaroslav Halak. Crosby and Trevor Daley had goals for Pittsburgh (11-4-2), and Matt Murray made 20 saves. Brock Nelson and Anthony Beauvillier scored for New York, which has lost four in a row (0-2-2) and is 5-8-4 this season despite playing 12 of its first 17 games at home. Halak made 32 saves in his seventh straight start. Crosby gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 15:19 into the game. Halak made an initial save on Letang's slap shot from the right point, but he lost sight of the rebound, and Crosby easily converted from the top of the right circle for his 11th of the season. Pittsburgh outshot New York 16-5 in the first period. Nelson tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 1:51 of the second period. John Tavares rushed the puck up ice and passed to Ryan Strome at the right faceoff circle. Strome played the puck into the slot for Nelson, who beat Murray with a wrist shot. Beauvillier quickly put the Islanders in front when he put a backhand shot past Murray on a breakaway at 2:34 to give New York a 2-1 lead. Daley tied it 2-2 when he took Phil Kessel's pass from behind the net and beat Halak with a slap shot in the slot with 6:05 remaining in the second period. New York outshot Pittsburgh 11-4 in the second.

* Beauvillier scored his second of the season and gave the Islanders a 2-1 lead when he stripped Letang of the puck just outside the Penguins blue line, raced in alone, and roofed a backhand shot over Murray.

* Chris Kunitz fed Malkin in the slot for a prime scoring chance, but Halak made a great save with his left pad to keep the game tied at 4:37 of the third period.

* Crosby faked a shot and deked around Nelson in the slot before his slick cross-ice feed to Letang for the game-winner. "It's an elite play by an elite player," Sullivan said.

* Islanders defenseman Calvin de Haan helped kill a penalty against forward Anders Lee late in the second period by blocking two shots seven seconds apart, one from Letang and another by Malkin, to help keep the game tied.

* Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin left early in the game after being hit by Lee but was able to return before the end of the first period. … Strome's assist on Nelson's goal was his first point in 10 games.

Pens Quotes

"I knew [Sidney Crosby] would step in and have some speed. I tried to set up Sid there, it came back to me, and I think we got them a little bit tired. They were standing still. I got it back to Sid, and when he's got time and space, he's going to produce." Kris Letang


"We were fresh against some tired guys. You want to make them count. I held on to the puck and got a play there." Crosby said of Letang's game-winner.


"I thought it was a pretty solid effort. I really liked our first period; a lot of energy, we were playing the game the right way. We put pucks on the net. We could have had a few more goals there in the first period. They pushed back, but I really liked the response in the third period." Mike Sullivan said.

"I think [Jaroslav] Halak was the only reason it got to overtime. We were pretty good there in the third period. In overtime, you see Sid making an unbelievable play to set up [Kris Letang]. I like how we stuck with it. Really good effort by everybody." Matt Murray

Penguins @ Buffalo Sabres 1-2 SO Saturday, November 19, 2016


Anders Nilsson made 46 saves, and Cal O'Reilly scored in the shootout to give the Buffalo Sabres a 2-1 win against the Penguins at KeyBank Center.
Nilsson stopped Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang in the shootout to help the Sabres (6-8-4) end a six-game losing streak. Starting in place of Robin Lehner, Nilsson made 18 saves in the first period. O'Reilly, who was recalled from the American Hockey League on Saturday, beat Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with a wrist shot to the high corner. He's 6-for-13 in NHL shootouts. The Penguins (11-4-3) have lost two of the past three and three of five. Captain Sidney Crosby made it 1-1 with a power-play goal 5:46 into the third period. Crosby received a pass from Chris Kunitz across the crease and shot the puck past Nilsson for his 12th goal of the season. He is tied for the NHL lead with Patrik Laine of the Winnipeg Jets. It was the first goal Crosby scored against the Sabres since Feb. 5, 2014. He has 15 goals and 35 assists in 32 games against Buffalo. William Carrier's first NHL goal, in his eighth game, gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead 8:16 into the first period.

* Carrier deflected a shot from the point by defenseman Taylor Fedun past Fleury.

* With 2:53 left in overtime, Nilsson made a left-pad save against Letang, who broke in after a pass from Crosby.

* Crosby's goal was his 350th in the NHL.

* Sabres defensemen Josh Gorges and Rasmus Ristolainen had a 4:00 shift and center Johan Larsson had a 3:16 shift that began with 8:00 left in the second period; the Penguins trapped the Sabres in their end for 2:13. Larsson broke his stick during the shift but the Sabres kept the Penguins away from the net and held them to one shot on goal.

* The Sabres hadn't defeated the Penguins since April 23, 2013. … Nilsson is 2-0-1 in his past three starts with a .976 save percentage. … Linesman Greg Devorski was honored for working his 1,500th NHL game.

Pens Quotes

"We're grabbing points here along the way, we're winning some games. We would have liked to come out with two points tonight. It didn't happen, but certainly I thought our team played the game the right way." Mike Sullivan

"It's just one of those games where you leave feeling like you deserve better. Ultimately we have to find a way to bury a few chances, but I thought we created a number of them, especially in the third." Crosby said.

NY Rangers @ Pittsburgh 5-2 - Monday, November 21, 2016


The New York Rangers bullied their way against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday. Rick Holden and Dan Girardi, should both have received penalties, as the pair slashed Evgeni Malkin at the same time.
Rick Nash, Michael Grabner and Kevin Hayes each had a goal and an assist for New York, which scored five straight goals to defeat Pittsburgh 5-2 at PPG Paints Arena. The Rangers (14-5-1) lead the Penguins (11-5-3) by four points atop the Metropolitan Division.

With New York trailing by two goals early in the second period, Nash cut the Penguins lead to 2-1. After Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz slid to block Nash's attempted cross-crease pass to Derek Stepan, Nash regained possession and shot over goalie Marc-Andre Fleury's glove 5:31 into the second.

Grabner tied it 2-2 with 5:37 remaining in the second with his 12th goal, which tied Penguins forward Sidney Crosby and Winnipeg Jets forward Patrik Laine for the NHL-lead, and forward J.T. Miller made it 3-2 on a shorthanded goal with 48.5 seconds left in the period. Hayes scored with 7:44 remaining in the third period to push the lead to 4-2. Stepan scored an empty-net goal with 1:23 left. New York goalie Antti Raanta made 29 saves and is 5-0-0 this season.

Pittsburgh forward Jake Guentzel scored twice in his NHL debut. Guentzel, who played left wing alongside center Evgeni Malkin and right wing Phil Kessel, gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead on a wrist shot 1:02 into the first period. His goal was the fastest scored by a Penguins player making his debut, surpassing forward Rick Kessell (2:19 on March 21, 1970).

He extended the lead to 2-0 with 6:48 remaining in the first after Malkin tipped a shot from Kessel on Raanta. Guentzel shot the rebound over the goal line.

With forwards Chris Kunitz (lower body) and Patric Hornqvist (concussion) injured, the Penguins recalled Guentzel from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Monday morning. He led Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with 17 points and seven goals in 16 games this season.


* Shortly after Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei was called for interference with 1:11 remaining in the second period, Miller benefited from a few bounces that led to New York's first lead. Hayes shot off Penguins defenseman Kris Letang's stick blade before it hit Malkin and Miller to deflect past Fleury.

* Raanta stopped Guentzel from scoring a hat trick 4:13 into the second period. Malkin set up Guentzel alone in front, but Raanta absorbed his snap shot.

* Guentzel scored on his first shot of his first shift early in the first period. After receiving a pass from Kessel, Guentzel darted into New York's zone and shot from the left circle. The puck snuck under Raanta's left pad.

* Malkin seemed to have a path to the net while carrying the puck down the near wall early in the third period. Hayes slid to knock it off his stick and prevent a potential scoring chance with New York leading by one goal 4:38 into the third.

* The Penguins placed Kunitz on injured reserve Monday. Sullivan said he is week to week. … The Rangers claimed forward Matt Puempel off waivers from the Ottawa Senators on Monday. … New York is 5-0-1 in games following a loss this season.

Pens Quotes

"It's a dream come true to play here. Obviously you have a little bit of nerves at the start and you just try to get them out early, so with the goal I think it helped a little bit." Guentzel said.

"[Guentzel is] a player that has good offensive instincts and a high hockey IQ. He's a playmaker. He's an offensive player. That's the strength of his game."
"[The Rangers are] a very good team. We knew it going in. I think the game was a little bit closer than the score indicates, but certainly they're a good team. We have a lot of respect for them." Mike Sullivan said.

Penguins @ NY Rangers 6-1 - Wednesday, November 23, 2016




Sidney Crosby finished with three points, including two goals, to help the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 6-1 win against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Crosby has 14 goals, the most in the NHL despite missing the first six games recovering from a concussion. Phil Kessel had a goal and an assist. Scott Wilson, Conor Sheary and Matt Cullen also scored for the Penguins, who scored five goals on 11 shots in the second period. Matt Murray made 16 saves for his sixth win in seven starts. He faced four shots in the final 27:44 of the game. The Rangers went 23:58 without a shot on goal before Mats Zuccarello put a soft backhander on Murray with 3:46 left in the third period.

The Penguins (12-5-3), who lost 5-2 to the Rangers in Pittsburgh on Monday, moved within two points of New York (14-6-1) for first place in the Metropolitan Division. Rick Nash gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 4:22 of the first period, but Henrik Lundqvist allowed four goals on seven shots in the second period before being pulled in favor of Antti Raanta with 7:03 remaining.
Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said he pulled Lundqvist for performance and to try to change momentum. It didn't work.

Wilson started the scoring for Pittsburgh by converting at the right post off of a tape-to-tape pass out of the left circle from Kessel at 2:02. Crosby made it 2-1 at 4:48 when he redirected Ian Cole's shot-pass from the left point through Lundqvist's legs. Kessel made it 3-1 with a quick snap shot off the rush from the right circle at 10:12. Crosby scored his second of the game 2:45 later when his pass to Sheary on a 2-on-1 deflected off of Ryan McDonagh's stick, fluttered up in the air and over Lundqvist's blocker. Sheary capitalized on what was a 96-second shift in the offensive zone for Pittsburgh by beating Raanta with a wrist shot from the right circle at 16:42. Before the offensive barrage, though, the Penguins did need Murray to bail them out a few times, including with arguably his biggest save of the night on Nick Holden's one-timer from the slot with two seconds remaining in the first period. It wouldn't be the New York Rangers without an act of goonery. This time it was Ryan McDonagh, who targeted Sheary with a late and dirty hit to the head which slammed the Penguins forward into the boards. Captain, Sidney Crosby was right next to the incident when it happened, and in a flash dropped the gloves to sort McDonagh out. However, the New York defenseman, did as cowards do and turtled.

* Kessel made it 3-1 in classic Kessel fashion, off the rush with speed to give himself room, finished with a quick and hard snap shot. Nick Bonino forced the turnover in the defensive zone and got the puck up to Kessel. He cut wide right into the circle and beat Lundqvist with a glove-side shot.

* Murray preserved what at the time was a one-goal deficit with a right pad save on Holden with two seconds remaining in the first period.

* Speed it up and put music to it, and Pittsburgh's 96-second shift in the offensive zone finished by Sheary's goal would make for one heck of a highlight. The Penguins zipped the puck around, playing keep away while even making a full forward line change. Sheary ended it with a wrist shot from the right circle.

* Seconds before Wilson scored, Bonino tied up Kevin Klein behind the Rangers net with the puck at their feet. It allowed Kessel to come in and get the puck. He brought it into the corner and curled out into the left circle, spotted Wilson and hit him with a tape-to-tape pass. Wilson did the rest.

* The Penguins haven't lost back-to-back games in regulation in the regular season since losing their first four games under coach Mike Sullivan last season (Dec. 14-19). … Kessel is one shy of becoming the fifth active American-born player to get 600 points.

Pens Quotes

"We executed well. We didn't turn pucks over. They're really good off the transition. I thought we were patient. We didn't force too many pucks. When you do that they end up coming back at you pretty quickly and with numbers. I thought we learned from the [game Monday] that we couldn't do that and did a better job." Crosby said.

"It just goes to show how dominant we can be when we're playing on our toes and playing with the puck, using our speed. Teams just can't keep up with us when we play like that, even a team like [the Rangers]. They're pretty fast in their own right."
"That goal goes in, the way hockey goes they probably come out with more of a step in the second period and maybe it's a different game." Murray said.