Pens/Sharks Recap: Depth players step up to help Penguins defeat Sharks

15/03/2024 03:41

The fourth line scores two goals and the third defensive pair (basically) adds on two morel. That's a winning combination for Pittsburgh to beat San Jose

Pregame

No changes for the Penguins from recent games.

Tough times for San Jose, defenseman Jacob McDonald is sick today and can't play, so SJ goes with 13 forwards and only five defensemen instead of the standard six.

First period

Not very pretty hockey early on. Pittsburgh kills an early penalty when Bryan Rust goes to the box, the Sharks then return the favor and kill a Penguin power play.

Soon after, the Pens score first at even strength. Noel Acciari wins a faceoff and then deflects in Erik Karlsson's point shot. Nothing fancy, plenty effective to give the home team a 1-0 lead.

The lead doesn't last long, SJ answers when Henry Thrun has a lot of space open up to pass a puck over for Fabian Zetterlund to shovel home. 1-1 game.

Before the teams depart for intermission, Marc-Edouard Vlasic scores from behind the goal line by banking the puck off of Marcus Pettersson and in. Rotten luck there.

Shots are 10 a piece after the first period.

Second period

The second starts better for the Pens, who begin to control play early on. The fourth line kicks in a second goal on a weird play where Jeff Carter is being defended two steps behind from a player who doesn't have a stick. It doesn't go well for him. 2-2 game.

Pittsburgh pulls away, Evgeni Malkin banks in a rebound of a Drew O'Connor shot into the net for his 19th goal of the season to give the Pens back a lead at 3-2.

Nothing is coming easy though, and the Sharks aren't going away. Mikael Granlund leaves the ice putting no weight on his leg after a rough looking spill getting crumpled backwards but is back soon. That's nice, but less nice for the Penguins is that their former player sets up a goal for Klim Kostin.

San Jose has scored late in each period, and are hanging around on the road after 40 minutes as a result in a 3-3 game.

Third period

The goals from unlikely sources continue for the Pens, John Ludvig fires from the left point and with enough bodies in front, it goes in. Pittsburgh back to another lead at 4-3.

The Pens get some insurance, again generated from the point. P.O Joseph fires one down Main Street off of Rickard Rakell's leg and in. 5-3 with still 15:22 left to play.

SJ pulls their goalie with just over two minutes to go. It backfires when the puck pops over Granlund's stick and Bryan Rust has an easy go to score into the empty net. 6-3.

Some thoughts

• Depth players stepped up tonight with the fourth line scoring twice, and both of the third pair defenders generating a goal too (though Joseph's went off Rakell). Nice job by all involved to get some pucks in the net.
• Rakell is scoring more off his legs these days than with his stick. The Pens aren't in a position to be picky about how the goals are going in, just a stray observation there.
• Emil Bemstrom made the nice pass on Carter's goal, good to see him produce something for his second assist as a Penguin and third point in now 11 games.
• This is slight praise and more an indictment on a handful of other players who should be leading the charge, but you could make a pretty good case that Drew O'Connor is Pittsburgh's best player right now, and maybe has been for his last handful of games. Two assists tonight, four shots on goal, a hit, a blocked shot and two takeaways - very visible throughout. That's not intended to be a backhanded compliment, O'Connor is playing some great hockey right now. Shame he's one of only a few who can say as much.
• In this Murphy's Law of a season for the Pens, not being able to go through with bobblehead night due to a theft of them during delivery is another new low in a season that keeps finding rock bottoms around every corner. Losing this game to the lowly Sharks would have been the cherry on top of that sundae but fortunately it was avoided.

The three-game homestand continues with two weekend home games against the Rangers and Red Wings.