PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pens improve to 5-1 in overtime this year, 6-5-1 overall, with a 4-3 win at the Islanders Thursday as Sidney Crosby on the backhand was the only player to score in the shootout.
Poke The Bear
Islanders Matt Martin, as pointed out immediately by Bob Errey on AT&T Sportsnet, poked the bear trading shots with Evgeni Malkin with just about 5 minutes left in the game.
The Russian drove home a slapper with 18 seconds left to tie the game at 3.
"It's huge," said head coach Mike Sullivan. "It's a huge goal for us. I think we needed a win for our confidence."
"All of the elements were in play. We worked on that 6-on-5 a fair amount. We had traffic in front. I think that was a big part of it. We made goalie sight lines difficult. Tanger makes a great pass and puts it right in Geno's wheelhouse. Obviously he can really shoot the puck."
"I think Geno did a great job of getting out of the shooting lane and getting open," said defenseman Kris Letang. "It was just a great shot. That's what he does well. Shoot the puck. We had good traffic in front. It was a great goal all-around."
Be Mine
In his first game of 2021 after season-ending surgery last year, Zach Aston-Reese not only returned to the lineup on a pairing with Teddy Blueger and Brandon Tanev. Aston-Reese scored at 7:02 of the second with assists to his linemates.
The tally helped by his aggressiveness on the forecheck, stripping Noah Dobson of the puck behind the net and like a basketball player, took it to the net and stuffed it home.
"For Zach to come back and score a goal in his first game after having not played for six plus months, that's not an easy challenge," Sullivan said. "I thought he did a real good job. He kept the game simple. He played within himself. The goal he got was huge for us."
"That's something coach kind of talked about with our line all throughout practice this week," Aston-Reese said. "Keeping it simple. Trying to create chances off shots from outside, driving the net and just playing behind their D. We stuck to that tonight. I think we had a few chances that we put it behind their D and we were able to get the puck back and create some offense."
It's Aston-Reese's first goal since Valentine's Day 2020.
DeSmith Battles Again
Not playing since February 1, Casey DeSmith gave up 3 goals on 29 shots, but a perfect overtime and shootout to move to 4-1 on the season.
"He was really good in that shootout," Sullivan said. "He made some big saves throughout the course of the night. We were thrilled for him."
"That guy works his bag off," said forward Bryan Rust. "It's just as simple as that. You can see it in practice. You can see after practice. He's always working hard. He's a big athletic goalie. He just always seems to get across and make those saves. Make the big saves in games when we need him."
Rust scored the other goal on a beautiful feed from Jake Guentzel off his stick in front of the net.
Gaudreau a step closer
He scored a couple of goals against the Pens in the Stanley Cup Final and now he's just a step from his first game in black and Pittsburgh gold. Frederick Gaudreau, 27, spent last year in the AHL with 28 points in 42 games, and activated from the Taxi Squad Thursday. He was then a healthy scratch.
The 6' Gaudreau is trying to work his way back in the league after 84 games with Nashville with 3 goals and 5 assists. What is so interesting about his career is he has as many goals 8 post-season games (3), as he does in the near 100 regular season matchups.
Up Next—a return home
For the first time this month and since January 24, the Pens will play again at PPG Paints Arena. Who wants to be Ovi's Valentine Sunday afternoon as the Pens host Washington at 3p.
