Penguins Stop Maple Leafs’ First Shot, But Not Their Last

When a team’s season effectively is over, when conventional victories are scarce, it has to take wins, however small, where it can find them.

And so it was Sunday, when the Penguins didn’t allow a goal on their opponent’s first shot for the first time in four games.

Unfortunately for them, Toronto did put its fourth of the game past goalie Joel Blomqvist, and followed that by doing it five more times in an 6-5 overtime victory at PPG Paints Arena.

The loss was the Penguins’ sixth in the past seven games and dropped their record to 24-29-10.

Forget qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs; simply finishing with a .500 record has become a virtual impossibility for the Penguins.

The Penguins were down, 5-4, after two periods, but Rickard Rakell scored his second of the game and 28th of the season just 10 seconds into the third  He carried the puck down the right-wing boards then cut to the Toronto net before flipping in a backhander for the final goal in regulation.

Maple Leafs forward William Nylander scored the game-winner from the slot one minute into overtime. It was Toronto’s seventh consecutive overtime victory.

P.O Joseph, who suffered an unspecified upper-body injury against Boston Saturday, was scratched. His place on the top defense pairing opposite Kris Letang was taken by Ryan Shea. Ryan Graves filled Shea’s previous spot on the third pairing, with Vincent Desharnais.

It took four shots, but Toronto got on the board at 2:45 of the opening period, when Max Domi beat Penguins goalie Joel Blomqvist from the right side of the crease. And when defenseman Conor Timmins banked a shot off Blomqvist’s left shoulder and into the net at 4:39, Toronto seemed to be on the verge of putting the game completely out of reach.

But Cody Glass cut Toronto’s lead to 2-1 with his fourth of the season at 10:27, and 62 seconds later, Rakell swiped a carom off the backboards past Maple Leafs goalie Joseph Woll.

The goal was Rakell’s 500th point in the NHL and Sidney Crosby’s assist was his 1,049th, tying Gordie Howe for 10th place on the NHL’s all-time list.

Crosby then put the Penguins in front, 3-2, with a power-play goal at 13:51, as he beat Woll from outside the left dot for his 19th of the season and the 611th of his career, moving him past Bobby Hull and into 18th place in league history.

Toronto center Auston Matthews stopped the Penguins’ run of unanswered goals at 4:08 of the second, putting a shot past Blomqvist from inside the right circle.

Bryan Rust countered for the Penguins at 15:38, as he drove to the net from the right circle before sliding a backhander behind Woll for his 21st of the season. Assists went to Crosby, who moved ahead of Howe on the all-time assists list, and Erik Karlsson.

But Toronto scorched the Penguins for two breakaway goals in the final minute of the period to take a 5-4 lead into the intermission.

John Tavares got the first of those with 55.9 seconds remaining, and Matthew Knies scored the other as time was expiring. The officials conducted a video review to verify that Knies’ shot was past Blomqvist before the period ended.

Knies scored his goal after picking off a cross-ice pass by Karlsson in the Toronto zone.

The Pittsburgh Penguins are not scheduled to practice Monday, when they will travel to Denver for a game against Colorado Tuesday.