PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – The Pens overcame a couple of overturned goals to persist to a 4-2 win over Nashville on Monday night and stay in the playoff race heading into Tuesday night when they need a Detroit and Washington loss.
“I loved our urgency from the drop of the puck,” said Pens head coach Mike Sullivan. “You could see the urgency right away.”
"We had a good start and I thought right from the drop of the puck we had a lot of jump, a lot of urgency,” said Pens captain Sidney Crosby.
“I thought we played with a lot of energy moving on, dictating the pace,” said Pens defenseman Kris Letang. “We didn't give them too much and the special units made a big difference."
Pens outshot the Preds 21-5 in the first period and it was as much about the offensive zone pressure as the Pens play in front of goalie Alex Nedeljkovic.
“We just came out with some fire,” Nedeljkovic said. “Maybe caught them by surprise a little bit. We were all over them. That was probably our best first period of the year, maybe our most complete effort of the season. I know we’ve said that a lot lately but we keep finding a way to outdo ourselves and come back with good efforts night after night. It was a great response, especially with after how (Saturday) night went.”
“He made some timely saves and he calms the game down when you need it,” Sullivan said of Nedeljkovic. “I thought he was locked in tonight. I thought he battled hard. I think the team battled hard in front of him as far as trying to limit some of the quality looks in front of him.”
How it happened
Pens appeared to score on the first power play as Michael Bunting took a loose puck in front of the net on a backhand/forehand move, but it was ruled Bunting interfered with goaltender Juuse Saros. Seconds later on the same power play a Bunting shot laid on the goal line behind Saros and Crosby dove and beat a Preds defender to knock it in with his stick to make it 1-0.
Defenseman Erik Karlsson added his 11th goal on blast as Drew O’Connor provided a screen and its 2-0 on assists from Crosby and Marcus Pettersson. Two-and-a-half minutes later, Kris Letang shot made it through traffic into the net, but it was ruled Lars Eller interfered with Saros.
Sullivan said you can sit all day and debate the calls. He agreed with the first one, but not with the second.
“It is what it is,” Sullivan sighed.
Nashville would get the first goal of the second period to be answered by Reilly Smith off a great pass from Eller to give the Pens a 3-1 lead on Smith’s first goal since St. Patrick’s Day. A skilled goal from Filip Forsberg made it 3-2 into the second intermission. One of the more unlikely goal scorers would give the Pens a 4-2 lead, a slapper from Emil Bemstrom as the fourth line worked hard to keep the puck in the zone and Karlsson found the forward on a nice shot-fake, pass. It was just the second goal from Bemstrom since February 25.
“They had a better second period that we did,” Karlsson said. “We just played more normal hockey instead of backing up and playing a little too safe at times. It was nice to see. Overall, I thought it was a good game from us.”
Up Next
Regular season finale at the New York Islanders on Wednesday at 7p. Whether it means anything is up to Detroit and Washington losing on Tuesday. The Red Wings are in Montreal and Caps are in Philadelphia.