PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Their last game was a horrid start where the players questioned the team’s effort and urgency. It was a much different story as the Pens kept a point back in the playoff race with a much needed 4-1 win over Minnesota.
“I think the start helped, when you come out of the gate and are on your toes and play well,” said Pens defenseman Kris Letang. “It sets up for success the rest of the game. We did a good job of staying with the plan. If you look at the last game, we didn’t have a start at all.”
“I think we were just committed to playing defense,” said Pens goalie Tristan Jarry. “They weren’t getting a lot of opportunities. We were keeping the puck in their zone. When it’s in their zone and we are spending energy in their end of the rink it puts them under pressure and it helps break down their coverage.”
“We did a much better job playing a calculated game,” said Pens head coach Mike Sullivan. “We just made better decisions on when we were aggressive. We didn’t give up nearly the level of odd-man rushes, when we do that, we are a whole lot harder to play against.”
Playing the right way from the first faceoff, the Pens peppered Marc-Andre Fleury and finally after the 16th shot, Kris Letang walked down the right wall and beat Fleury’s glove. It gave the Pens a 1-0 lead and they would outshoot the Wild 19-5 in the first period.
“I didn’t say anything (to Fleury),” Letang said as the two remain good friends after 11 years together with the Pens. “It’s getting a little more natural now, but just weird.”
Pens carried that momentum into the second with Jarry making a couple of big saves. On the power play, some luck for the Pens as Joel Eriksson Ek went down blocking a shot leaving Minnesota withe three defenders. Rickard Rakell took advantage rifling a shot from the left side above Fleury’s glove for a 2-0 lead.
Killing off a Wild power play to start the third, Jason Zucker made it 3-0 with a blast in the right slot off a great feed from Evgeni Malkin and Rakell helping take the eyes away from Fleury.
Minnesota got its lone goal on a five-on-three power play from Marcus Johansson on a puck that slid across the crease and as Jarry was trying to kick it out, his follow through helped the puck in. As the Wild were really pushing play, the Pens got a rush and Drew O’Connor perfectly led Jeff Carter as he directed/shot it in past Fleury and 4-1 was how it ended.
Jarry gets his first win of the month and third since March 12 finishing with 27 saves.
“I thought he was great,” Sullivan said. “They had a couple of sneaky grade-A chances with deflections in the second period. A couple of those point-shots that look harmless, hit sticks in the slots and those are dangerous plays. I thought he tracked it well & I thought he was solid. He made some key saves for us.”
“He made some really, really big saves for us,” said defenseman Brian Dumoulin. “Really limited their second chance opportunities too and helped us on our breakouts. I thought he had a great effort tonight.”
“We played a really good game,” Jarry said. “We knew what was on the line and we have to keep it going.”
“It was a complete team effort,” Zucker said. “It was good to come away with that win.”
Wild Card Standings
Blowout wins for the Panthers against Ottawa 7-2 and the Islanders over Tampa Bay 6-1 kept the Pens a point out of the playoffs with three games to play. Here are the current standings.
Florida-79 games 89 points
Islanders-79 games 89 points
Pens-79 games 88 points
Rutta return
Out for a couple of weeks, defenseman Jan Rutta returned from injury to play 16:54 (4:15 on the penalty kill) and was a plus one. He was paired with Mark Friedman.
“You can tell what Rutta brings to the team,” Sullivan said. “He played well.”
Up Next
Pens head to Detroit for a 1p faceoff on Saturday. Florida is at Washington Saturday night and the Islanders host Philadelphia at 7:30p Saturday.