Penguins/Blues Recap: St. Louis overcomes RUTGERmania in Overtime

Rutger McGroarty gets his first two NHL points and helps force overtime but the Blues down the Penguins

Pregame

The Penguins bring a similar lineup to what they’ve had recently, Joona Koppanen replaces Emil Bemstrom.

The Blues give starter Jordan Binnington the night off and have Joel Hofer in the net.

First period

Early on Tristan Jarry makes a great save on a tight chance on the first shot he sees. Later play swings the other way and it’s Pittsburgh who gets on the board first. Rutger McGroarty does well along the boards to keep the puck down low and it ends up being the rookie’s first NHL point because Bryan Rust cuts in from the left side with a great move and tucks in his 27th goal of the season. 1-0 game.

Ville Koivunen gets his name on the scorecard for the first time, only in the penalty section by taking a holding minor. Pittsburgh kills it off.

Rest of the period goes by quietly. Shots only 8-4 Pens who take the early lead.

Second period

The Blues wake up in the second. Matt Grzelcyk turns the puck over and then on the rush the other way Kris Letang and Grzlecyk can’t handle the St. Louis pressure. Jarry commits to going down and Robert Thomas stays hot with yet another assist, this time for Jake Neighbours to pop it home and tie the game at 1 just 39 seconds into the period.

The Pens don’t go away and put some pressure in the offensive zone. Erik Karlsson steps up to keep it in, Thomas falls injured and is out of the play for a bit and Pittsburgh gets bodies to the net. Rickard Rakell tries to power it in, Hofer stops him but Connor Dewar is there at the doorstep to jam the puck in. 2-1 game.

The Blues quickly answer back to the Pens’ answer goal. Conor Timmons gives up the puck in the middle of the ice, Kevin Hayes is back in support but not a defender or fleet of foot enough to deal with Pavel Buchnevich scooting by him. Buchnevich scores and it’s back to a tie game at 2-2.

St. Louis quickly gets another goal to take their first lead of the night. A flip pass from deep in the zone from Cam Fowler goes over the head of Letang and Jordan Kyrou is behind both Letang and Grzelcyk. Not good for that guy to get that chance. Kyrou snipes his 33rd goal of the season on the breakaway. 3-2 Blues all of a sudden.

The Blues are swarming now. Buchnevich gets another chance on a cross-ice pass but his shot goes wide.

STL gets behind the defense again, it looked like Karlsson made a good defense play to lift the stick but he got it a little too into the hands for the referee’s liking so the Blues get their second power play of the game with 5:00 even to play. While killing that off, Ryan Shea gets his stick up on Oskar Sundqvist to give the Blues 38 seconds of a 5v3 power play. Sundqvist bleeds and Shea earns four minutes of penalties.

The Pens get out of the period killing off the penalties but the Blues got the better of the goals that got traded early in the frame and lead 3-2.

Third period

Pittsburgh kills the short carryover time on Shea’s penalty but the wheels are getting creaky. The Grzelcyk/Letang pair gets pinned deep for a while and Jarry’s rebound control becomes shaky. That group escapes but on the next shift the Blues explode up the ice. Jimmy Snuggerud’s cross-ice pass for Neighbours jumps into the net after the finish. 4-2 to give STL some breathing room.

Right when it looked like the Pens were all out of aces as Kenny Rogers might have put it, they don’t have to fold ‘em just yet due to earning their first power play of the game mid-way through the third. It strikes, Sidney Crosby bumps over a pass for Rickard Rakell to hammer home for his 33rd goal of the season and Pittsburgh crawls within one. 4-3 game with 8:45 to go in regulation.

Pittsburgh goes back to Rust-Crosby-Rakell in clutch time, they’re pushing but Hofer holds strong.

Jarry pulled with about two minutes left. The Pens keep pushing and their two young players combine on the primary points to tie the game with 25 seconds to go! Koivunen hits McGroarty with a pass, Rutger goes to the net and slings it around the leg of the goalie Hofer. 4-4 game!

Overtime

St. Louis mostly controls the puck, Kyrou skates around Letang who gives him a little whack and the refs call that one. Letang is apoplectic but they don’t change their minds (they never do).

The Blues take their time with the 4v3 and eventually work it to where Thomas snipes one past Jarry. 5-4 Blues win.

Some thoughts

• Kevin Hayes caught an errant stick to the chops from Philip Tomasino in the first that left Hayes bloody. Hayes would return in the second with the full fishbowl cage. Bad luck for him if a late-season trip to the dentist is in tow for him, almost looked like the old Pascal Dupuis situation to pull out a jarred tooth but luckily the evidence wasn’t as ghastly or definitive.
• Dewar has four goals in 11 games with Pittsburgh, two of them coming against STL. They’re gonna think he’s one of their native Tkachuk boys if they only see him in games against their team.
• The Timmins/Karlsson pair has been pretty impressive under the hood with possession stats in the four games they’ve been together. That’s been an interesting development, ideally the Penguins need to add more capable left shot defenders ASAP but the experiment born from necessity to put to right shot defenders hasn’t been a bad one. Timmins made a flub that’s been his nature and reputation in the second that led to the Buchnevich goal but all things considered is as worthy as anyone on hand to be in that spot.
• Along those lines, Ryan Shea since coming back from his broken finger hasn’t been much. It was noticeable that more than once he struggles to hold the puck in the blue line on passes. His play against Neighbours on what ended up as the GWG in the third wasn’t tremendous rush defending either, but what can ya do. Less a critique of him so much as an observation that Shea’s form was briefly much higher pre-injury but the magic looks gone for now.
• McGroarty got his first two career points, the first wasn’t a major play made but it counts. The second last minute goals shows the clutch gene/leadership he’s been known for at lower levels. McGroarty knocked Dylan Holloway out of the game with a hip/butt check along the wall. Unfortunate end result but nice to see the rookie getting involved and making a mark on the game. There’s no need to put too much into a single game from such a young player but this was obviously a great showcase for him.
• The Pens got their pound o’ flesh from the Blues tonight. Holloway left and didn’t return, Thomas went the the lockerroom for a while after a collision before the second Pens goal, Sundqvist’s mouth was bloodied and Brayden Schenn was smarting from a cross-check to the back from Ryan Graves. Pittsburgh isn’t known as a physical team but they were battling, several Blues players aren’t going to be feeling great tomorrow morning.
• With McGroarty and Koivunen up and in featured roles it’s been Tomasino who has gotten lost in the shuffle a little lately. Tomasino is playing with Hayes and Noel Acciari as linemates which isn’t conducive for a lot of help but it’s now five games without a point for Tomasino and only one assist in his last seven.
• Buchnevich had the red light special at the start of the second period. First shift: Neighbour’s first goal. Second shift: Dewar scores. Third shift: Buchnevich scores one of his own.
• It looked like Crosby’s 11 game point streak was about to end with a whimper until he extended it to 12 with the power play assist in the third. It was the only PP all game long and a quiet night by Crosby standards.
• McGroarty’s late goal adds a point to the standings, bad for draft pick but offers a glimpse of improvement and helps him get off the ground which is good for development. Not the worst trade to make.

The Pens stay on the road for the weekend, next stop Dallas on Saturday afternoon.