Report Card: Penguins Outplay Blues, Crosby ‘Beast Mode’ & Stitches in 9th Straight Win (+)

Backup goalie Casey DeSmith didn’t play well for the second game in a row, but this time Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan could go to Tristan Jarry in relief. Jarry stopped all 13 shots he faced beginning in the middle of the second period. Sidney Crosby was flying, and linemates Bryan Rust and Jake Guentzel kept up the pace.

Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said Crosby “was in beast mode.” Crosby didn’t talk after the game because he was getting stitches, presumably across the bridge of his nose after the gloved right hook delivered by St. Louis defenseman Niko Mikkola in a second-period scrap.

And Evan Rodrigues just kept chugging along putting points on the stat sheet and goals on the board. He had two points (1-1-2). Ho-hum, eh?

The Penguins scored four unanswered to beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-3. Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena. Rust scored a pair. Crosby got the crucial tying goal just as it seemed St. Louis would be able to lock down the game for the final minutes, and Rodrigues uncorked a heavy one-timer from the left-wing circle for the game-winner.

“St. Louis is a real good hockey team. You know, they got a couple of goals–They had the lead for most of the night, but I don’t think it affected our team’s attitude or our team’s enthusiasm to play,” Sullivan said. “We really liked the game we were playing. We were just behind on the scoreboard.”

I wrote it Sunday–and others are coming around to it, too (you’re going to see a lot of it the next couple of days)–there’s a little something about this team.