Penguins/Maple Leafs Recap: Solid third period sends Pens to a win

It was tied 2-2 after 40 minutes but Pittsburgh clamped down and finished the Maple Leafs off

Pregame

The Penguins shake up their lines a bit for tonight, in part due to the injury that keeps Philip Tomasino out. Cody Glass jumps up to Tomasino’s usual spot, Jesse Puljujarvi still exists and takes the place Anthony Beauvillier had been playing and Beauvillier drops to the fourth line. Speaking of people who still exist, Ryan Graves draws back in for Ryan Shea and Tristan Jarry gets the net on the second night of the back-to-back.

The visiting Toronto Maple Leafs bring the following crew and a lot of fans in blue jerseys to the arena.

First period

Toronto takes the first penalty of the game early on, and with new Penguin power play groups on the night they strike early on. Matt Grzelcyk shoots from the point, it deflects off the knee of Rickard Rakell in front and hits the back of the net. 1-0 Pittsburgh early on.

The Pens have had trouble allowing response goals to the opposition after they score and the Maple Leafs soon score. They hit a post and the Pittsburgh defense breaks down a bit. Jarry leaves a rebound in no man’s land and even though Marcus Pettersson cross-checks Mitch Marner away from the crease Marner is able to spin as he falls and get enough starch on the puck to put it in the net. 1-1 game.

Good end-to-end action at each side. Jarry makes a big save on John Tavares and soon after Sidney Crosby is leading the rush. Crosby’s shot is off the mark but takes a huge bounce off the back wall that Bryan Rust is able to skate into with a shot that gets past Joseph Woll. 2-1 Pens.

Jarry stops William Nylander on a breakaway and the Pens are able to take the lead into the first intermission. Shots in the first are 8-5 TOR.

Second period

Kris Letang heads to the box early on for intermission and it doesn’t take the Leafs long to take advantage. Auston Matthews has a few shots but Jarry stops him, but they work it over to Nylander and he has more luck. 2-2 game.

Letang draws a penalty and the Pittsburgh power play almost comes through again. Kevin Hayes hits the post hard and the Pens can’t punch it in during the ensuing scramble. When the power play ends and Max Pacioretty gets out of the box he gets caught up in a scum following a whistle and goes right back to the penalty box on a roughing call. Unlike the previous power plays this is a bad one and ends early when Erik Karlsson trips a Leaf.

Unlike last night the past couple night when the Pens lived in their defensive zone, it was a fun game with lots of skating end-to-end, neither team establishing long sequences of zone time before the play shifted to the other end. Total shots through 40 minutes are just 17-16 TOR,

Third period

Graves gets in some trouble delaying too long on a shot attempt that gets blocked and ends up in a footrace going back the other way. Kudos for a nice recovery to fight off Alex Nylander.

Pickering takes a stick up high from Auston Matthews to permit another Pittsburgh power play. It’s a nice looking power play from the Malkin/Rust/Glass/Bunting/Karlsson group. Karlsson fed Rust and his centering attempt went off a Leaf but right to Bunting. The ex-Leaf has an easy finish due to the scramble breaking down the Toronto defense and goalie. 3-2 the Pens push ahead again.

The refs swallow the whistle and let both teams skate on after some questionable penalty-ish plays but can’t ignore Alex Nylander’s egregious hold to send Pittsburgh to a fifth power play. On it Cody Glass gets annihilated in front of the net but of course at that point there’s no appetite for another call. The Pens don’t score but drain two more minutes off the clock.

Toronto makes their push to tie the game, Matthew Knies hits the post but the puck stays out.

Malkin springs out on a breakaway, he loses the puck and doesn’t get much of a shot away but is able to center it from behind the net and Drew O’Connor gets a big chance that Woll stops. O’Connor can’t buy a goal right now.

With 2:13 to go the refs get involved with a last chance power play for Toronto (gee what are the odds..), though Rust did get his stick up and give them something to call. The Leafs eventually pull Woll to make it a 6v4 edge.

All goes for naught, Blake Lizotte scores his nightly goal on the empty net from long range with 39 seconds left to provide insurance and a 4-2 score.

Toronto takes a timeout and pulls Woll again. Kris Letang pads his stats with a full length goal that has just enough juice to slide into the net at the other end. 5-2.

Some thoughts

• Jarry’s first goal allowed tonight came on the third shot on goal for the opponent. This marks the eighth time out of 10 starts that he’s surrendered a goal within the first five shots on goal. (And, let’s remember an offside challenge against Florida last game spared this stat from being 9/10). This thought comes up every game Jarry plays if only because it happens almost every game. It’s astounding how gettable Jarry is early on in games. (And, of course, that speaks to the team defense and attention as well).
• Obligatory follow up that if Jarry can buckle down the fort and only allow one goal for the rest of the game following the slow start, well that’s something a team can work with.
• The power play was 0/4 last night and looking terrible so the coaches switched things up and split Crosby/Malkin apart. The new look worked, nice to see some changes pay off instantly with each of the different units tallying a goal.
• While we’re on the subject of crediting coaching decisions for player usage, when Owen Pickering was listed as first pair in the past it usually came in select spots and shifts and resulted in low time on ice. That is changing as Pickering (who only played his eighth NHL game tonight, let’s remember) gets acclimated to the NHL. Pickering played 12:37 at ES through two periods, the second highest on the team (behind Karlsson at 13:12). Some of that may be necessity since the team can only trust one left-handed defender (Pettersson) to play big minutes without performing terribly. Regardless of the reason behind it, Pickering’s slowly growing into a big time role — where he took on a bigger share of the action and continued to look the part (1 GF, 0 GA, and a second-highest among defensemen 55.6% xGF% through two periods, per Moneypuck).
• Overall Pickering’s 18:21 TOI represented an early career-high. His 77.5% xGF% led the team and his inputs were nearly flawless. Impressive stuff, the rookie’s development is progressing in a steady and upward trajectory that is rarely seen.

• The Pens lost 65% of the faceoffs last night against New York (and it was 80%+ early on in the game) so wouldn’t you know they won 14 of the first 17 draws tonight. The variabilities of the beautiful game, eh?
• Pittsburgh recorded the first six shots of the third period, nice response in a 2-2 game. That figure was power play-aided, but still nice to see them get stronger and not fade on the second night of a b-2-b by not allowing a shot in the first 8+ minutes of the final frame. (Toronto, of course, was also in the same situation of playing last night).
• Rust was credited with seven shot attempts (three on target, three wide, one blocked), that figure could have been 17 and it wouldn’t be surprising. Felt like he was on the puck and firing it all night long in the offensive zone.
• Vintage night from Letang; 23:19 played, +3, the EN goal, game-high 7 SOG (and 11 attempts), 2 hits and 2 blocked shots. Letang finished his night with a 2:23 long shift down the stretch through the pivotal late game PK. Even after the first ENG, the Pens stuck with Pettersson-Letang as the workhorses to see this one out (stick tap to Pettersson too, who logged a 1:47 shift).

The Pens get another couple days of rest and will get ready to host the Colorado Avalanche in the next game on Tuesday night.