The Pittsburgh Penguins used a rare quick start Thursday to defeat the Florida Panthers. Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, and the Penguins scored three goals in the first eight minutes on their way to a 5-1 victory at BB&T Center. Pittsburgh matched its season high with its fourth consecutive victory.
It was the first time in eight games the Penguins led after the first period. Conor Sheary had a goal and an assist, and Tom Kuhnhackl, Matt Cullen and Carl Hagelin scored for the Penguins (17-7-3). Justin Schultz and Scott Wilson each had two assists, and goalie Matt Murray, making his first start in four games, made 28 saves. Jaromir Jagr scored for the Panthers (12-12-4), who were playing their first game at BB&T Center since Tom Rowe replaced Gerard Gallant as coach. Roberto Luongo made 25 saves. The Panthers have lost five of six games (1-2-3) since Rowe took over. The goal was the 1,882th point of Jagr's NHL career, putting him five behind Mark Messier for second place on the League's all-time list. Crosby's goal was his 18th of the season, tying him for first in the NHL with David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins. He opened the scoring at 3:06 when he skated from the bottom of the right circle to the high slot and beat Luongo with a wrist shot with Patric Hornqvist providing a screen. Sheary made it 2-0 on a pass from Crosby at 4:51, and Kuhnhackl scored his second of the season to put the Penguins up 3-0 at 7:34. Cullen scored his seventh goal at 5:48 of the third period to make it 4-1, and Hagelin scored into an empty net with 33 seconds remaining to make it 5-1 after Murray shot the puck into the Panthers zone.
* In the waning seconds of a 4-on-3 power play that soon would become a 5-on-4, Panthers center Aleksander Barkov took a pass from Keith Yandle in stride in the neutral zone and skated around Penguins center Nick Bonino in the right faceoff circle. As he neared the front of the Pittsburgh net, the other two Penguins converged toward Barkov, who slipped a perfect backhand pass to Jagr for a one-timer that made it 3-1 at 6:17 of the second period.
* With a 3-1 lead, Pittsburgh opened the third period on the power play but gave up a 2-on-1 opportunity to Florida. Colton Sceviour came in with the puck and shot from the right faceoff circle, and Murray made the save 38 seconds in to keep the two-goal lead.
* Sheary's goal had a little bit of everything. Crosby first absorbed defenseman Jason Demers' hip check at the blue line and continued with the puck alone toward Luongo. He then fed Sheary to his left, but Sheary shot wide on the redirect. The puck then bounced off the end board and back toward the Florida net. Moving to get back into position, Luongo inadvertently kicked the puck into his net when he moved his right leg. "I was thinking that I was going to get an opportunity to get a stick on it once it got back out front, but then it just hit off his pad and went in," Sheary said. "You don't get those bounces every day, so I'll take it."
* The Panthers had a chance to salvage something out of the first period when they had a 2-on-1 and Jussi Jokinen fed Sceviour to the right of Murray. But instead of one-timing the pass, Sceviour held on to the puck and misfired when he attempted to pass to a teammate in the slot.
* Defenseman Keith Yandle, who played in his 578th consecutive game after being a game-time decision because of a foot injury, had an assist on Jagr's goal. … Crosby has at least one point in 17 of 21 games since returning from a concussion Oct. 25. He extended his point streak to six games (four goals, six assists). … Penguins center Evgeni Malkin had his six-game point streak come to an end. … The Panthers challenged Kuhnhackl's goal, claiming he interfered with Luongo before Wilson's shot went off him, but the ruling on the ice was upheld. … Center Vincent Trocheck played a Panthers-high 24:00.
Pens Quotes
"We thought our start was going to be important with some of the adversity this team is facing. We knew they were going to come out with a lot of urgency. Our start was really important.""I thought we did a pretty good job. When you get up three goals that early in the game, as a coach sometimes it's a little concerning. Teams have a tendency to exhale and when you do that you can lose momentum fast. I was very pleased at our guys staying with and playing the game the right way." Mike Sullivan.
"It was nice to start with the lead. It was kind of weird the way things worked out. We didn't have many shots, but we had a few goals right off the bat. They had their chances too in the first. We gave up a few odd-man rushes and had to kind of settle in, but once we did, I thought we did a pretty good job of just playing the right way."
"We knew that they were going to be motivated. They've played a lot of close games lately, a lot of overtime games. When you get a new coach, everybody is trying to prove themselves. I think we expected a pretty tough game. It was just nice to get that kind of start." Sidney Crosby Said.
Pens @ Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 - Saturday, December 10, 2016
Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby each scored twice to help the Pittsburgh Penguins rally for a 4-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena. Pittsburgh (18-7-3), which trailed 3-1 in the second period, won its fifth game in a row. Malkin gave the Penguins a 4-3 lead at 8:36 of the third period. His wrist shot went past Vasilevskiy 11 seconds into a power play, with Phil Kessel getting his third assist. Jonathan Drouin scored twice for the Lightning (14-13-2), who are 1-6-1 in their past eight games. Valtteri Filppula scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves. Malkin's first goal at 17:25 of the second period cut the Lightning lead to 3-2. The goal was the result of a passing display capped by Kessel's feed to Malkin at the hash mark, where he shot a one-timer past Vasilevskiy. Crosby tied the game 3-3 with his NHL-leading 20th goal of the season at 5:08 of the third period. Kessel made the pass, and Crosby scored on a one-timer from between the circles. Filppula gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead at 3:38 of the second period when he beat Matt Murray with a wrist shot to the near post on a 2-on-1. Drouin made it 3-1 at 10:19 of the second on a partial breakaway. Crosby made it 1-0 at 12:03 of the first period, and Drouin tied the game 1-1 with a power-play goal at 17:57. Crosby left the game briefly in the first period when he was checked by Lightning defenseman Luke Witkowski and his head hit the boards where they meet the glass. Crosby said he had to go through the concussion protocol at the end of the first period.
* Crosby dove to get the rebound of defenseman Brian Dumoulin's shot on goal and managed to get the puck past Vasilevskiy's stick while falling down for the first goal of the game.
* Murray made a glove save on Filppula, who had a look at an open net, at 10:46 of the third period to deny the Lightning a good chance to tie the game.
* The Penguins power play scored one goal in its past 20 attempts entering Saturday. Pittsburgh went 3-for-5 thanks in large part to Kessel, who had an assist on each of the three goals.
* Drouin beat Cole to the puck and maintained his balance before beating Murray with a backhand for his first multigoal game in the NHL.
* Drouin needed seven stitches to close a cut below his left eye as a result of Malkin's high stick at 16:07 of the first period. … Malkin passed Kevin Stevens and Jaromir Jagr for second place in Penguins history with 111 power-play goals. Mario Lemieux is first with 236. … The Penguins had four power-play goals on the road coming into Saturday.
"It was just kind of a stinger. My neck got jammed and that's basically it." Crosby said.
"What's so impressive about [Crosby] is how he plays. He creates offense so many ways. He's every bit as good a passer as he is a scorer. His compete level and his willingness to go into battle areas ... it's impressive. He's been one inspiring guy for our group." Mike Sullivan"We have a lot of confidence. We know we can score two, three goals at a time. We play our hockey and we can go down 3-1 and come back and win the game." Malkin said.
Phoenix Coyotes @ Pens 0-7 - Monday, December 12, 2016
It's difficult to imagine the Pittsburgh Penguins elevating their recent play further, but they might have last week. Matt Murray made 32 saves and seven players scored in the Penguins' 7-0 win against the Coyotes at PPG Paints Arena. Sidney Crosby, Nick Bonino, Trevor Daley and Bryan Rust each scored in the second period after Scott Wilson gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead in the first. Phil Kessel and Justin Schultz scored in the third period. The Penguins (19-7-3) have scored 35 goals during their six-game winning streak. Murray earned his fourth consecutive win and is 11-2-0 this season. He is 20-4-1 with three shutouts in the regular season since entering the NHL last season. The Coyotes (9-14-5) have lost seven of their past eight games (1-4-3). Mike Smith allowed four goals on 22 shots before being replaced by Louis Domingue, who made nine saves. Wilson gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead 8:40 into the first. He sent a wrist shot from the top of the left circle past a moving screen by Tom Kuhnhackl and Smith's glove. After the Penguins failed to capitalize on a power play early in the second period, Bonino scored 33 seconds after it expired to make it 2-0 at 4:30.
Daley gave the Penguins a 3-0 lead at 6:58 and Bryan Rust pushed it to 4-0 at 8:30 before Smith was pulled. Crosby, who leads the NHL with 21 goals in 23 games, made it 5-0 on a power play with 4:47 remaining in the second.
Kessel extended it to 6-0 at 1:20 of the third period and Schultz scored with 7:34 remaining. After taking a stick to the face from Martin Hanzal, Crosby temporarily left the game with three seconds remaining in the first period. He returned shortly after the second period began.
The Coyotes, unable to compete with the Pens on a skill level, decided to goon it up right from the first puck drop. Top line Center Martinook, who lets be honest here, is a hockey nobody and will not be remembered when his 'playing' days are over, decided to cheap shot Sidney Crosby, but the Pens captain was having none of it and wasn't afraid to square up to him. Then later in the opening period, Dauphin or is it Dolphin? decided to clean out Kris Letang with a knee-on-knee hit but ended up coming off worse going head first into the boards.
I know it can't be easy playing against talented hockey players, when your a team of talentless dirty dogs, but these sort of actions should be removed from the game before someone gets hurt.
As for the Coyotes, what is the point to their existence any more? I mean seriously! what point do they serve other than cannon fodder for the other teams and a laughing stock of a franchise. Located in a non-hockey market and in the middle of a never-ending re-build, surely its time for the league to take a look at moving the team and starting again.
* Crosby scored the Penguins' fifth goal after a slap shot from Evgeni Malkin deflected off Domingue's blocker and the right post. Crosby took a baseball-like swing at the airborne puck to send a shot past Domingue, extending his goal streak to four games and his point streak to eight.
* A turnover helped set up Pittsburgh's second goal. Oliver Ekman-Larsson received a pass from Hanzal and attempted a return feed that slipped between Hanzal's legs to Bonino, who took a wrist shot for his fourth goal of the season.
"It was a pretty tight game, I thought, throughout the first half of the game. Then after that, we just opened it up." Murray said.
"We try to play the right way and eventually, we kind of got some turnovers there in the second. Once we got a lead there, we were able to kind of play our game." Sidney Crosby
Kessel extended it to 6-0 at 1:20 of the third period and Schultz scored with 7:34 remaining. After taking a stick to the face from Martin Hanzal, Crosby temporarily left the game with three seconds remaining in the first period. He returned shortly after the second period began.
The Coyotes, unable to compete with the Pens on a skill level, decided to goon it up right from the first puck drop. Top line Center Martinook, who lets be honest here, is a hockey nobody and will not be remembered when his 'playing' days are over, decided to cheap shot Sidney Crosby, but the Pens captain was having none of it and wasn't afraid to square up to him. Then later in the opening period, Dauphin or is it Dolphin? decided to clean out Kris Letang with a knee-on-knee hit but ended up coming off worse going head first into the boards.
I know it can't be easy playing against talented hockey players, when your a team of talentless dirty dogs, but these sort of actions should be removed from the game before someone gets hurt.
As for the Coyotes, what is the point to their existence any more? I mean seriously! what point do they serve other than cannon fodder for the other teams and a laughing stock of a franchise. Located in a non-hockey market and in the middle of a never-ending re-build, surely its time for the league to take a look at moving the team and starting again.
* Crosby scored the Penguins' fifth goal after a slap shot from Evgeni Malkin deflected off Domingue's blocker and the right post. Crosby took a baseball-like swing at the airborne puck to send a shot past Domingue, extending his goal streak to four games and his point streak to eight.
* Domingue kept the Penguins lead at 4-0 when Chris Kunitz had a solid scoring chance with 8:45 remaining in the second period. After gathering a pass from Bonino, Kunitz sent a wrist shot toward the upper-left corner of the net, but was denied by a glove save.
* Penguins defenseman Olli Maatta had one assist, but was most effective in the defensive end, where he had four hits and three blocked shots.
* Forward Josh Jooris played 8:46 in his Coyotes debut after being claimed off waivers from the New York Rangers on Sunday. … The Penguins started Murray for a third consecutive game after starting Fleury the previous three. Murray replaced Fleury with the Penguins trailing 4-2 at 7:08 of the second period of an 8-5 win against the Ottawa Senators on Dec. 5.
"I thought we played hard. Coming off an emotional game against [the Tampa Bay Lightning], I thought we came back with a strong effort, with a lot of energy, with just playing the game the right way consistently. That's the type of identity we're trying to build here." Mike Sullivan said.
"They played a hard game. I know they have a lot of youth in that group, so they played hard. I think we just showed that the way we play, we can dominate anybody if we're playing our best. So, they played us real hard."It was a pretty tight game, I thought, throughout the first half of the game. Then after that, we just opened it up." Murray said.
"We try to play the right way and eventually, we kind of got some turnovers there in the second. Once we got a lead there, we were able to kind of play our game." Sidney Crosby
No comments:
Post a Comment