Penguins Prospects Win ‘War’ vs. OTT; Day 2 Scrappers & Standouts (+)

BUFFALO — The Pittsburgh Penguins prospect tourney team didn’t need a period to get their footing Saturday and instead played a structured and tough team game, largely protecting goalie Sergei Murashov against the Ottawa Senators’ team. The Penguins also had to protect themselves from the brutish Senators, who deployed a dump-chase-pound approach.

The Penguins prospects dominated the third period and added an empty netter for a 4-2 win. The Penguins prospect team is 2-0 and could win the tournament by beating Buffalo on Monday.

“That wasn’t a game; that was a fight,” said Penguins forward Vasily Ponoramaev, who scored the game-winning goal on a pretty speed rush, capped by a give and go that ended with him in front of the net.

A prospects tournament is far from the be-all and end-all of projecting a rebuild, but on Saturday, we were able to put a pair of first-round picks on the ice as well as a pair of others with NHL hopes in the near future.

After a failed two-year regime under former general manager Ron Hextall, his first Penguins draft selection, Tristan Broz built on a solid performance Friday with an equally strong performance Saturday, flexing a 200-foot game with a bit of sandpaper. The Ottawa bench was eager to get a piece of him.

Hextall’s first selection in 2022, Owen Pickering, also appears to have stopped growing upward and started learning to use his frame in advantageous ways. After a rough start Friday, Pickering built on his strong third period and played a very capable game Saturday. We’ll get into the details in the analysis below.

However, most of the intriguing talent on the ice Saturday has been acquired in the past 12 months by current president of hockey operations/GM Kyle Dubas. When several veteran contracts are up next summer, the players on display Saturday will be waiting with eager skates.