PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Regardless the Pens still would have been in playoff position with a loss to Boston, but to overcome some of the issues that haunted them last week and parts of the year, makes the 5-4 overtime win that much bigger Sunday.
“A lot of emotions are involved in this victory,” said goalie Arturs Silovs. “It’s a huge credit to the guys to work hard for it and get rewarded. I think it’s a huge win for us.”
Boston scored the first three, the third on a misplay behind the net by Silovs allowing David Pastrnak to put one into an empty net. Yet losers of three straight, the Pens kept battling.
“They obviously go up 3-0 on us and I think we do a good push and they get an unfortunate goal to make it 3-0,” said defenseman Erik Karlsson. “It’s easy for us to bury our heads and start pointing fingers, but we rallied. Artie really rallied.”
Down 3-1 after a Egor Chinakhov power play goal in the second, Pens defenseman Ryan Shea saw Connor Dewar ahead of his a defender at mid ice, he fired a pass the length of the ice, knowing Dewar would get the rebound off the board first to avoid icing and Dewar spun and lifted an amazing backhand to make it 3-2.
33 seconds later, Anthony Mantha, on an assist from Thomas Novak and Silovs, tied the game.
“I think it’s belief that if we keep playing we are going to have a chance,” Novak said. “I think there is belief in this room still going into the third down by two.”
PPG Paints Arena was so quiet early in the third, you could hear one fan yelling ‘wake up Pens’. A few minutes later you couldn’t hear yourself think there was so much energy in the building.
Saturday, the Pens held the led three different times only to allow the Flyers to tie it and eventually win. Sunday one minute and 59 seconds after working back to tie the game, the Bruins took the lead. The Pens could have folded there, but didn’t.
“I feel like we have a group that never gives up and are in every single game and can turn things around,” said forward Elmer Soderblom, playing in his first game as a Penguin after being acquired Friday. “That’s a huge advantage that we have.”
Mantha would strike again to tie it.
It would head to overtime where the Pens dropped the Philly game Saturday and dropped 13 others over the season. This time though, Novak scored just 17 seconds in and the Pens turned what assuredly was a loss into climbing back into second place in the Metropolitan Division.
“When you have a game where things haven’t gone your way and you just dig into the third period and keep staying with it, you want to carry it with you because you own it now,” said head coach Dan Muse. “You know you can be in these situations where are you are down three at one point and there is hockey left. Just focusing on that next shift and staying with it.”
“The response that they continued to have, as a coach you can kind of feel it coming. There was a lot of belief in that bench and there is a lot of belief in our staff.”
“We didn’t know how, but we were going to find a way. That’s what the guys did.”
“It felt like we played a good game against an opponent that gave us troubles in the past,” Karlsson said. “We were good enough and deserved to win today.”
“It actually feels really good,” Mantha said. “They had our number so far this year. A big comeback like this just before a road trip for our team is a good momentum builder, now we are going on a five-game trip and we need to play some great hockey.”
Just when you start to doubt this group, they come storming back.