Rust’s OT Goal Salvages Penguins’ 5-4 Victory Over Florida
The Pittsburgh Penguins still face a long, steep climb to get to where they want to be in the standings, but they are closing in on a milestone that might have seemed unreachable just a week ago.
They defeated Florida, 5-4, at PPG Paints Arena Tuesday night for their fourth consecutive victory and, in the process, made it to within one game of .500 (11-12-4).
Of course, breaking even would be, at best, a modest accomplishment, but it would represent significant progress for a team that sputtered and struggled through the early weeks of the season.
The two points didn’t come easily, however. As has been the case so often this season, the Penguins squandered a multiple-goal lead — 4-1 in the third period, to be precise — before Bryan Rust claimed the victory by scoring from inside the right circle at 1:31 of overtime.
Florida appeared to take a 1-0 lead at 8:26 of the opening period, when right winger Adam Boqvist beat Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry from the top of the right circle, but the Penguins challenged that the play had been offside. A video review confirmed that Panthers center Anton Lundell had not tagged up properly before defenseman Nate Schmidt carried the puck into the offensive zone.
The Penguins needed less than a minute to take advantage of that reprieve, as rookie defenseman Owen Pickering staked them to a 1-0 advantage at 9:20 with his first goal in the NHL.
Pickering threw a shot past Panthers goalie Spencer Knight from the left point, thanks in large part to Michael Bunting’s screen in front of Knight. Blake Lizotte received the only assist.
Evgeni Malkin made it 2-0 at 10:32, burying a puck behind Knight from the inner edge of the left circle for his sixth of the season. Assists went to Philip Tomasino — his third point in four games since being acquired from Nashville — and Drew O’Connor.
Much of the period played out in the Penguins’ end, and Matthew Tkachuk got the Panthers within one by sticking a shot behind Jarry from inside the right circle at 17:24. His goal came on Florida’s 12th of 13 shots in the opening 20 minutes. The Penguins generated five on Knight during that period.
Sergei Bobrovsky, a key figure in the Panthers’ surge to the Stanley Cup this spring, did not accompany his teammates here because his wife was preparing to give birth in Florida, and nothing Knight did is likely to prompt Bobrovsky to rush back out of fear he’ll be replaced as the go-to goalie.
After scoring on two of five shots during the first period, the Pittsburgh Penguins made the most of their second in the second period.
Krls Letang collected the rebound of a Matt Grzelcyk shot that caromed off the boards behind the net and beat Knight from the outer edge of the right circle to put the Penguins up, 3-1.
Lizotte and Grzelcyk picked up assists on the goal, Letang’s fourth of the season and second in two games.
The first half of the game passed without a penalty being assessed to either team, a streak that was broken when Panthers defenseman Dmitry Kulikov was sent off for slashing O’Connor at 11:17.
The Penguins failed to capitalize on that power play and Jarry subsequently preserved their lead with an excellent stop on Aleksander Barkov after a ghastly giveaway by Grzelcyk.
Marcus Pettersson produced what appeared to be an insurance goal at 3:45 of the third to swell the Penguins’ advantage to three, but Florida began to claw back in a matter of minutes.
Sam Bennett countered Pettersson’s goal at 6:55 and Boqvist lifted Florida within one at 8:58.
And while Lizotte was serving a high-sticking minor that gave the Panthers their first power play of the evening, Tkachuk collected an Aaron Ekblad rebound and tossed it past Jarry at 11:27 to tie the game.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are scheduled to practice Wednesday at noon at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
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Huge Props to Jarry for keeping the Pens in this game, this was a terrible offensive performance outshot and outplayed by miles. Happy for the 2 points but other than goaltending not 1 thing to be happy about in this game.
Completely outplayed, took the opportunity against a backup goaltender. Then Jarry steals a game with 37 saves, many of them big saves at crucial times. Something that seemed impossible the way this year started. But people are downvoting your comment because they so badly want Jarry to fail.
I hope that all will go well and wish the best of luck to the Bobrovsky family and their soon to be new member. By the way, if Bob had played tonight, it would’ve been a tough ride. But these Pens do need a lot of luck, because the talent is lacking. Also, same talent managed to string 4 wins in a row against good opponents?!? It seems the only talent we have left is the coaching staff. I mean, people do realize that our 2nd line wingers are Tomasino and Drew? It’s just extraordinary coaching. Surely, they will start… Read more »
Yes, different result with Bob between the pipes.
The COACHING STAFF wake up rude.
I thought for sure they’d get blown out. The fact that they withered the assault and even won the game is a real testament to the team. In the arena of winning and losing, it isn’t about who is the best, but who is left standing.
Look Jarry played a decent game but to say he saved the game is idiotic. Our problem is we are used to such bad goaltending that a decent game seems great to us. Jarry is playing better but we won 4 games in a row because Sullivan finally saw the light in two big ways. One he has been forced to playing the Young guys and two he has reined in the dump and chase. Simple as that.