PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – After having opportunities in each of the last four losses, but coming up short each time the Pens finished a game Thursday night and did it against one of the most talented teams in the league.
Pens scored the first three goals, then got up 4-1 to beat Edmonton 5-3. What stood out between this game and other blown leads, they stayed aggressive.
“We kept playing,” said goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, who made 40 saves. “We played to win. We weren’t just trying to sit back and accept the rush. We weren’t trying to shut it down. We were just playing our game and playing on top of them in doing that, it did the same thing and shut them down.”
“I thought as a group tonight there was a complete effort as far as our intentions of playing the game the right way, against a great team,” said Pens head coach Mike Sullivan. “Our attention detail as far as our commitment to play defense was where it was needed to be to give us a chance to beat a team like this.”
Sullivan said they competed hard, if it were playoff time you would have heard it described as desperate. Which would have been accurate as this team is, and probably will be for three months, in a dogfight for points.
“We did some good things in some of those (losses) and felt like we came up a little bit short,” said captain Sidney Crosby, who scored a goal and finished with three points. “Tonight, give ourselves a big lead like that, we got to find a way to close it out. I think it’s huge to be able to do that and hopefully give us some momentum going into the weekend. We know how important every point is, but this homestand, heading into a big road trip after this.”
“We need the points.”
“It was another game we need to win because the standings are so tight,” said defenseman Kris Letang.
The win keeps the Pens tied with the Blue Jackets for the final playoff spot with 44 points. That’s three clear of Ottawa and Montreal, four ahead of Detroit and the Rangers and five better than Philly.
“It’s great for us,” said forward Bryan Rust, who was the game’s number one star with a goal and two assists. “We’ve been playing some really good teams as of late and we’ve been falling just a little bit short. For us to play another really good team and play the game that we did and get a big win. It gives us a lot of confidence, like ‘hey, if we play the right way, we can beat any team in this league’.”
Pens host the Senators Saturday at 4p and then Tampa Bay, currently with 46 points, on Sunday at 5p.
Ned time
Asked if Nedeljkovic could play more games than Tristan Jarry in the near future, Sullivan didn’t hesitate.
“Sure, we are trying to put guys in the lineup at any position that are going to help us win games,” Sullivan said.
The numbers are similar between the two, but the 29-year-old Nedeljkovic has played better of late.
“He was huge,” Rust said. “He made really big saves. He controlled his rebounds really well and I think that helps when we don’t give them second and third opportunities. Just to have a performance like that, just feeds throughout the lineup.”
“I just got lucky they were hitting me tonight,” Nedeljkovic said with a grin. “I made a few good plays, east-west tonight. I was happy to be able to get a couple of them. They are good players over there. They got a lot of patience. You do your best to try and make them miss best you can.”
Crosby milestone
Sidney Crosby passed Joe Sakic on the NHL’s all-time points list for ninth place with 1,642 points. Mario Lemieux is next with 1,723. Crosby is one assist from tying Marcel Dionne for 11th place and 10 shy of Gordie Howe for 10th all-time.
“I’m running out of superlatives,” Sullivan said.
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