PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was a laugher until it wasn’t funny anymore. The Pens got the win, 7-6 but after New Jersey became the first NHL team ever, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, to outscore a team by 5 goals in the third and not win.
“We just took our foot off the gas pedal,” said forward Evan Rodrigues. “That was really it. They have a lot of skill on that team and we turned it into a run and gun game. They started capitalizing. It’s not something you like to see happen. It’s a wake-up call for Thursday.”
The Pens led 6-0 going into the third period.
“I’ve never been through an experience like that,” said head coach Mike Sullivan, adding he’s not sure how to react. “Not a lot went right for us. We need to be a whole lot better in a lot of areas to close out games and not put ourselves in that type of position.”
“We let up a decent amount,” said forward Bryan Rust. “They pushed real hard. We definitely got on our heels a little bit. I think we have to do a better job of when things start going the other way, we got to grab ourselves by our boot straps and tightened up and play more simple.”
“We need to do a better job of realizing that after a goal or two into the third and not let that snowball effect take place.”
It started so well, the Pens scored as many goals in less than two periods then they had in the last three games.
Mike Matheson got the first, it continued with Rust taking a pass off the boards from Sidney Crosby. Brian Dumoulin made it 3-0 on a backhanded dump in on net that bounced past goalie Scott Wedgewood.
Jeff Carter grabbed a loose puck late in the first for his first Pens goal. Evan Rodrigues with a nice feed to Teddy Blueger, who found the open net. Then Rodrigues benefitted from a feed from Jason Zucker to slap it home. Touchdown.
Devils got the first three goals of the third. What seemed like a meaningless or stat padding, sharp-angle goal from Sidney Crosby became the game winner to make it 7-3 at the time. Devils would score three more and luckily for the Pens, New Jersey ran out of time.
“They were playing with nothing to lose,” said defenseman Brian Dumoulin. “They were getting up in the play. They scored on a majority of their chances in the third. It’s something we have to learn from and we will.”
What appeared to be a good night all around for Tristan Jarry turned ugly. Jarry had his fourth assist of the season, one from a Pens single-season record for a goaltender, on the Dumoulin goal. One period turned what was one of his better all-around games to his worst since Opening Night, giving up 6 at the Flyers.
“I haven’t had a discussion with Tristan,” Sullivan said. “The game just got over.”
“Like I said, we are going to digest this stuff. We will have discussions moving forward in how we can learn from it and how we can improve and get better.”
“Every game is a new game,” Rust said. “Doesn’t matter if you win 10-1the game before or lose 10-1. It doesn’t matter, you have to learn your lessons. You have to keep moving forward and getting better.”
“I’m glad we won,” Sullivan said. “These are important points. I thought we had a great start. We played pretty well in the first couple of periods. There is a lot to like about it. We didn’t play well in the third. We can talk forever on why, what went wrong or how. The reality is we know we can’t do that moving forward. My hope is that’s an outlier.”
Up Next
Another meeting with the Devils Thursday night at 7p.