PITTSBURGH — Penguins public address announcer Ryan Mill’s booming voice filled PPG Paints Arena on Tuesday. He began calling out Bryan Rust’s beautiful, open ice goal, when he was quite rudely interrupted … by the goal horn.
Brian Dumoulin had innocently tossed a puck on net from the neutral zone. It took an awkward bounce that caught everyone off guard, mostly Devils starting goalie Scott Wedgewood, who had allowed a pair of goals in 45 seconds.
“Let’s try this again,” Mill laughed after the celebration briefly subsided.
It was that kind of a night for the Penguins.
During a 7-6 victory, Pittsburgh blitzed the short-handed New Jersey Devils early and often, with three goals on the first eight shots and four goals in the first 20 minutes.
Defenseman Mike Matheson continued to show his offensive upside with his fifth goal of the season. Rust raced ahead on an odd-man rush, set up perfectly by a long indirect pass from Sidney Crosby. Dumoulin was the beneficiary of that lucky bounce. Deadline addition Jeff Carter scored his first goal as a member of the Penguins.
And that was just in the first period.
But after entering the third period with a comfortable 6-0 lead, the Penguins came within one goal and 40 seconds from squandering two points.
With the win, the Penguins (29-14-3, 61 points) leapfrogged the New York Islanders to move into second place in the East Division standings. They are currently one point behind the first-place Washington Capitals. Both teams have played 46 games. The Islanders have played 45 games and have 60 points.
Throughout the Crosby era, the Penguins have consistently been one of the NHL’s more-potent offensive machines. Maybe that firepower flew a bit under the radar recently. When the Penguins dealt with a rash of injuries to their forward corps, they emphasized a defense-first approach that was predicated upon protecting the net front and building a fortress around the scoring areas. As a result, they transformed into the NHL’s best defensive team in March, with the league’s best goals-against average and save percentage.
But Tuesday’s offensive outburst was yet another reminder that these Penguins can still score goals with the best of them. They entered the night with 159 goals on the season trail only the Washington Capitals (163 goals) for the most goals in the NHL this season.
Then the third period happened… a reminder of what can happen, even against an injury-ravaged inferior opponent, when you take a breath.
With the Penguins leading 6-0, New Jersey’s Nico Hischier scored just 41 seconds into the final frame to set the tone for a wacky ending. The Devils totaled five goals in the first 16 minutes of the third period. Only Crosby’s goal briefly stopped the bleeding. But what looked like 20 easy minutes turned into a tense final four minutes with the Penguins clinging to a 7-6 lead.
It’s hard to lump all of the goals into one succinct narrative. It was a mix of human nature tricking the Penguins into thinking they could take a breath, some sloppy plays and subpar goaltending.
Taking care of business will be critical for the Penguins now, with just 10 games left in the season and two more this week against the Devils. New Jersey has been floundering all season, sitting in seventh place in the East Division with less than half as many wins at the Penguins. They got even thinner in the days leading up to the trade deadline when two of the longest-tenured Devils, Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac, were shipped to the New York Islanders.
Then, on Tuesday they were forced to play without Pavel Zacha, Jesper Bratt, Ty Smith, MacKenzie Blackwood and P.K. Subban. That left the Devils without three of their top-four point producers, their biggest name defenseman and their No. 1 goalie.
The three-game series against the Devils continues with games on Thursday and Saturday before a critical two-game series against the Bruins begins on Sunday.
