Penguins/Devils Recap: Pittsburgh makes it four in a row with 7-3 beating of New Jersey

The Penguins break a six-game home losing streak to New Jersey with a big win on Saturday afternoon

Pregame

No changes for the Penguins who decide to stick with what’s been working to lead to entering this game on a three-game winning streak.

The Devils are also on a three-game winning streak and have three former Penguins newly acquired to their lineup (Cody Glass, Daniel Sprong and Brian Dumoulin).

First period

Pittsburgh starts out well with a flurry of shots early, but it’s New Jersey who scores first. Ryan Graves inexplicably coughs up the puck (well, I guess the explanation is he isn’t very good) and Glass is the beneficiary to see the puck come right to him and he quickly sweeps it on net. 1-0 NJD.

The Penguins come back with two goals scored 25 seconds apart near the end of the period to put their stamp on the game. Watch the keep in the zone by Conor Timmins, it gets lost for what comes next but was a wonderful job by him at the blueline. That works gets the puck down to Noel Acciari who throws it at the net. Connor Dewar is there to send the rebound past Jacob Markstrom.

The quick strike after the goal comes on a broken play. NJ’s Dawson Mercer can’t keep a hold of the puck and the Pens jump out on a 2-on-1. Phil Tomasino’s pass is not on target, it’s behind Danton Heinen and catches his skate. But it ends up working perfectly when Markstrom over-slides due to the bad pass and Heinen recovers enough to bump it into the empty net. 2-1 game.

Shots are 7-6 PIT, a little bit of the luck o’ the Irish there with some of those bounces early on.

Second period

Early in the period, Vlad Kolyachonok gets the gate for tripping. Tristan Jarry goes crazy to make a ton of rapid fire saves to keep the Pens ahead. Pittsburgh uses a Malkin-Crosby-Rakell line after the penalty is killed and it works. Crosby feeds Rakell for a quick shot that sneaks in by Markstrom. What could have been a 2-2 game a little earlier if not for timely Jarry saves has gone the other way to become a 3-1 Penguin lead.

Rakell catches a stick to the nose that draws blood and Pittsburgh is off to a four-minute power play. It isn’t that impressive but disaster is adverted when Evgeni Malkin clears a puck away from the blueline that the refs don’t whistle dead. NJ scores but it’s a quick and easy challenge that corrects the call.

Surviving their own power play, the Penguins take that 3-1 lead into the break for the final intermission.

Third period

The Devils put a bit of a push on early but Jarry makes a save. The puck goes the other way and Jonathan Kovacevic coughs the puck up to Phil Tomasino. He rips a quick shot that beats Markstrom and the Penguins are up 4-1 with 17:38 to play.

Acciari gets his stick up and clocks Dumoulin the face to draw a four-minute power play for NJ. Pittsburgh kills off the first half of it but Timo Meier strikes to bring the score to 4-2 with 14:20 to play.

Seconds after the next faceoff, Malkin high-sticks Brett Pesce and it’s four more penalty minutes. Luke Hughes shoots and Jesper Bratt gets a tip on it on the first part of it give NJ two more power play minutes. 4-3 game.

Pesce is all around the penalties today, he cross-checks Kevin Hayes and Pittsburgh gets a chance for the power play. At first, it’s not pretty at all – the Devils’ pressure puts the Pens on their heels for a while. But the Penguins recover to score, Danton Heinen makes a key play to pick off a weak clearing attempt, a few passes later and Erik Karlsson measures up a shot to the top corner. 5-3 with under six minutes to go.

NJ pulls Markstrom with about 2:40 to go. Pittsburgh has to ice the puck with 1:15 to play and the Devils utilize their timeout to give their top players a breather. Dewar tacks on his second goal of the game into the open net to make it 6-3.

Hayes slips another goal in to make it 7-3. Not the best day for Jacob Markstrom.

Some thoughts

• Early in the Pittsburgh winning streak there were some smoke and mirrors with the Pens getting heavily out-shot and relying on great goalie play to pull out unlikely wins. They’re still getting the great goalie play from Jarry but this game was a lot more even in terms of the way both teams played.
• Based on the disparity of scoring chances earlier, it seemed like the Pens were on a classic “dead cat bounce” type of last gasp to string together a few results. But now? Maybe not. They still only have 66 points in 69 games and are way too far out to do anything but it’s become a scrappy team to watch that is trying hard and executing well.
• Dewar’s been a big part of that, he had 0 goals in 31 games with Toronto this season and he already had three tallies in just four games in Pittsburgh. Turning 26 this summer and lacking a contract and now going on his third NHL organization the clock is starting to tick loudly on his future. He really needs a strong finish to the season to set himself up for a future. So far, so good on that front. Dewar doesn’t have the skill to produce a ton in this league but he needs to be visible with his energy and efforts adding up to something out there. That’s been happening to an admirable degree thus far.
• Old friend Cody Glass scored today, but that’s nothing new for him with the Devils. He’s up to four points (2G+2A) in four games with NJ. He wasn’t bad in Pittsburgh but didn’t quite pop either as an impactful player, the change of scenery has gone well for him as far as first impressions go.
• Poor Rickard Rakell was just having the mark under his eye that required stitches fade away when he got the bridge of his nose opened up by a high stick today. He’ll be looking like a hockey player for a while longer yet. That’s been the price for getting up to 31 goals on the season now – his career-high was 34 back in 2017-18.
• New Jersey becomes the seventh different team for Sprong, still just 27. Lots of talent, not as much for character and attitude.
• A goal and an assist today for Tomasino leads to a tidy 10 goals and 10 assists on the season. He’s scored all 10 goals (and 9/10 of the assists) with the Pens in 40 games. With a strong finish that’s turning into a nice little season for himself.
• Not the prettiest of hockey today, puck was going all over the place and neither team was taking good care of it with their decisions. The Pens looked like they were cruising to a relatively easy win after Tomasino put them up 4-1 but then immediately handed over four power play chances to the Devs. Two quick PPG later and any hopes for that easy win went out the window.

The winning streak is up to four games and the Pens now enjoy a couple of days off before their next game against the Islanders on Tuesday night.