PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Penguins snap two game losing skid in 5-2 win over Golden Knights.
In the first period the Penguins dominated from start to finish against the Golden Knights. Vegas came off a 3-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres last night and they came out extremely flat in the first period only getting 5 shots on net while the Penguins had 16 including two power plays.
Max Pacioretty hit Kris Letang into the boards and after they went back and forth with pushing and shoving, Pacioretty punched Letang in the back of the head sending him to the penalty box. Pittsburgh came up empty on both power plays on multiple opportunities that Luarent Brossoit stopped including a great chance by Zach Aston Reese in front of the net.
Mike Matheson returned for tonight's game after missing 5 games and Matheson contributed immediately from his absence as he buried his 8th goal of the season with just about a minute to play in the first period.
"I think it's big for our confidence," said Bryan Rust. "Especially coming out and having a good first period, I think that's been a focal point of ours. We haven't had great starts. I think we did."
The Penguins called up their 2019 7th round pick Valtteri Puustinen and he record his first NHL point in the second period.
After a breakaway to the net from Brock McGinn on a Puustinen pass, McGinn was denied by Brossoit, but Jeff Carter was trailing on the play and snuck past the defender as the puck sat in the crease untouched and poked it in giving the Penguins a 2-0 lead with 17:22 to play in the second period.
Mike Sullivan liked what he saw from the rookie.
"I thought he played a real solid game," said Sullivan. "When you get to know Puusti he's a real likeable kid,"
Vegas responded on the attack after a pass to the front of the net was denied by Marcus Petterson. Jonathan Marchessault knocked Petterson down and the puck fell right to Jack Eichel who buried a shot past Jarry cutting the Pens lead to 2-1.
After a 4 on 4 ended and both teams went to full strength, Vegas tied the game on an Alex Pietrangelo goal.
The first period the Penguins were the better team but the second period belonged to Vegas outshooting the Pens 22-7 in the period.
Mark Friedman broke the tie scoring his first goal of the season giving the Pens a 3-2 lead early into the third period.
"I was pretty relieved to see it go into the net," Friedman said.
With 5:48 to go in the game a hooking penalty was called on William Carrier and the Penguins power play went to work. Crosby went behind the Knights net and had a pass deflected off a skate to Jake Guentzel. Then Guentzel found a cutting Bryan Rust for the open goal to the right of the net giving the Pens 4-2 lead with 5:08 to play in the game.
Rust has scored at least 20 goals now for the third consecutive season.
Evan Rodrigues sealed the deal with 2:17 to play in the game on an empty netter goal from center ice as the Pens put this one to bed 5-2.
Sully Switches Things Up:
Mike Sullivan made changes to the lineup for tonight's game.
Mike Matheson was activated off the injured list after missing 5 games and was paired with Letang on the first line.
Valteri Puustinen made his rookie debut on the 3rd line and recorded his first NHL point of his career.
Dominic Simon and Kasperi Kapanen were both scratched.
Brian Boyle returned to the 4th line after a healthy scratch and Evan Rodrigues moved to the second line.
Injury Report:
Brian Boyle left the game in the second period for a brief amount of time but returned.
Marcus Petterson took a shot of the knee and it hit him in the mouth but he returned from that as well.
Brock McGinn left the game in the second period as well. Mike Sullivan said after the game he is week-to-week with an upper body injury. Sullivan said he's going to be hard to replace.
"He's a tough guy to replace. He just does so many of the little things so well. He makes us hard to play against."
Brian Dumoulin missed the game due to a non-covid illness.
Up Next:
Pens wrap up the three game homestand with the Carolina Panthers at 1:00 on Sunday. It will be the second of a back-to-back for the Hurricanes as they play Philadelphia Saturday.
