PITTSBURGH — The last time the Penguins played a hockey game, Joe Biden was president, the No. 1 movie in America was “Spider-man” and a gallon of milk cost $3.77.
OK, so it had just been a couple of weeks. But it sure felt longer, didn’t it?
After they had five straight games postponed for reasons related to COVID-19 plus a few days off for Christmas, the Penguins finally hopped back onto the ice Sunday at PPG Paints Arena. They picked up right where they left off, scoring six first-period goals before holding on for an 8-5 win against the San Jose Sharks.
Jake Guentzel lit the lamp in his return to the lineup. Evan Rodrigues and Bryan Rust both netted hat tricks. And Kasper Bjorkqvist scored a goal in his NHL debut as the Penguins pushed the league’s longest winning streak to eight games.
It was a wild for an undermanned team that had last played on Dec. 19.
“Teams aren’t used to getting the amount of time that we got off here. We knew it was going to be a work in progress, trying to get back into the game mindset,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “I liked the start we had. We brought a ton of energy. We talked about simplifying the game. I thought we did. We got rewarded.”
The Penguins were the NHL’s hottest team before COVID outbreaks around the league led to the postponement of dozens of games. That included the Penguins’ two before the Christmas break, something they weren’t thrilled about.
After reporting back to Pittsburgh on Dec. 26, their cases began to pile up, too. The Penguins put nine players, including Tristan Jarry, on the COVID list last week.
With the NHL reducing its isolation period for asymptomatic players from 10 days to five, the Penguins could activate Rodrigues, fellow forward Dominik Simon and defensemen John Marino and Mike Matheson. But they were still without Jarry, three of their top four centers and a pair of skilled wingers Sunday.
With three more of their games postponed last week, Sullivan had the Penguins practice five times in six days, mixing in as much 5-on-5 action as he could given their roster limitations to get them ready for their first game back.
It took Rodrigues just 63 seconds to give the Penguins their first lead of 2022. He danced around Sharks defenseman Radim Simek, froze goalie James Reimer with a sneaky shot release then snapped the puck off the left post and in.
Guentzel scored three minutes later to completely shake off any concern about the team’s long layoff. Rodrigues put another past Reimer. Then Rust walked right down the middle to tally his first goal since getting injured on Nov. 26.
“It sucks being out. It does. I was just happy to be back … and playing again and being around the guys,” Rust said. “To have the [game] I did, it’s just kind of a cherry on top. I was hoping I’d be able to come right in and make an impact.”
Yes, three goals and the first five-point game of his career certainly helped.
The Penguins had a 4-0 lead just 6:09 into the game. Bjorkqvist and Rust pumped in two more to finally chase Reimer, who allowed six goals on 17 shots.
Bjorkqvist, a 2016 second-round pick, made his NHL debut with the Penguins so short-handed. His road to the league included two major injuries. But the wait was worth it for the upbeat Finn, who nudged Radim Zohorna’s centering pass just across the line for his first NHL goal. Giddy teammates swarmed him.
“I’m super appreciative of everything and everyone who’s helped,” Bjorkqvist said. “It’s a dream to get to play in the NHL and now I’ve had the opportunity.”
Sunday’s victory marked the first time since 1976 that the Penguins scored that many first-period goals. They received a standing ovation as they went into the dressing room at PPG Paints Arena up, 6-1, after one period. But they somehow let the Sharks, who put rookie Zach Sawchenko in goal, get back into the game.
The Sharks scored a power-play goal after Sawchenko robbed Drew O’Connor on the doorstep in the second period. Early in the third, Casey DeSmith watched a long shot from Matt Nieto bank off the end boards, bounce off his pad then trickle over the goal line. Two more Sharks goals suddenly made it 6-5.
“We get up 6-1 and it’s kind of a mental battle, staying fully engaged. In your head, you know you have to. But sometimes it’s just natural to let the foot off the gas a little bit,” Rodrigues admitted. “When it got to a one-goal game, everyone kind of snapped back in and knew we had to take care of business.”
The Penguins and their anxious fans could finally exhale once Rodrigues scored on a power play with 2:01 remaining, securing his first NHL hat trick. Moments later, Rust put the puck into an empty net for the fifth one of his career.
He was surprised to see some folks still had a hat to toss down onto the ice.
“I don’t know what those people were doing [by] saving them,” Rust joked.
Rodrigues had a theory after they became the eighth Penguins duo and first since Petr Sykora and Pascal Dupuis in 2008 to record hat tricks in the same game.
“Sometimes when they are thrown from way up top they don’t really reach the ice,” he said. “Maybe someone got lucky and got to throw someone else’s hat.”
The Penguins are scheduled to host the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday. They will start a season-long six-game road trip in Philadelphia the following night.
