Penguins/NHL
Blues 5 – Penguins 4 OT
As the Pittsburgh Penguins raised their Stanley Cup banner for the second consecutive season, the St. Louis Blues played spoilers with a 5-4 overtime win on Wednesday night at the PPG Paints Arena.
Alex Piertrangelo scored a 1:15 into overtime to sink the Penguins who rallied down from two goals in the third period to force overtime.
Pittsburgh’s first two goals of the season came from defensemen, Justin Schultz and Olli Maatta, as the Penguins were involved in a back and forth game through 60+ minutes.
Maatta and Schultz not only found the back of the net, both had great possession numbers, Maatta at 68% (19/9) and Schultz at 65% during even strength play.
Down 4-2 with under eight minutes to play, Pittsburgh got third period goals from Sidney Crosby (1) and Conor Sheary (1) a 1:04 apart to force overtime.
The Penguins over the final six to seven minutes of regulation flashed that signature ability they have where they are just buzzing in the offensive zone and overwhelm the opposition. They came mighty close to going up 5-4.
Matt Murray made 29 saves in the loss.
Pittsburgh had four players with multi-point games:
Sidney Crosby – 1 Goal, 1 Assist
Jake Guentzel – 2 Assists
Evgeni Malkin – 2 Assists
Bryan Rust – 2 Assists
TIOPS X’S & O’s
Blues counter Penguins aggressiveness to with surgical performance in transition
A staple of the Penguins under Mike Sullivan is live and die with their defensemen pinching along the boards. In tonight’s loss it haunted the Penguins, especially in the third period.
St. Louis was extremely efficient in transition.
They caught the Penguins up ice all game and pushed the pace the other way with their d-men jumping up in the play for high danger chances with great success.
Early in the third period with the Penguins trailing 3-2, Brian Dumoulin pinches down the left boards, Pittsburgh doesn’t have the proper support from the forward up high and St. Louis counters with a goal the other way.
Moments later in the third period, Ian Cole pinches down the right wall and again the Penguins don’t have forward support and Matt Hunwick who really struggled in the loss tries to make an aggressive hit and with no help behind him and the Blues are off to races for a 2-on-0 the other way.
Pittsburgh’s transition defense was in preseason mode.
Among the forward group tonight, the Malkin line was among the culprits in being a problem with their transition D.
When playing Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel together, the Penguins are sometimes playing with fire when it comes to their d-zone play.
The line was constantly up the ice and out of the play, especially in the first two periods.
On Brayden Schenn’s first period goal, Cole turned the puck over on a hard forecheck and there was no line of defense as Malkin, Kessel, and Rust were up the ice and failed to read Cole was being forechecked hard with pressure.
Then the line got caught deep in the offensive zone that led to an odd-man rush the other way and Olli Maatta getting caught flat footed with a tripping penalty on Parayko.
St. Louis would convert on the power play chance a 1:19 later to take a 2-1 lead.
Teaching Moment for PK
[hide]
The Penguins penalty kill pairs are a work in progress with Greg McKegg being mixed in, Ian Cole-Matt Hunwick a new pair, and the coaches experimenting with Scott Wilson on the PK.
Late in the first period the Penguins got burned on a Colton Parayko power play goal where all four Penguins were caught on the wrong side of the puck.
Matt Hunwick nor Ian Cole failed to protect the net-front with and with Cole/Hunwick/Rust all down low, Scott Wilson was the last resort of defense and he too got caught out of position by not spacing himself enough between the strong side and weak side.[/hide]
McKegg shines in debut
One of the best players on the ice tonight was Penguins center Greg McKegg. McKegg played to his strengths, he was buzzing on the forecheck, but in playing the third line center role, he produced a lot of offense in the OT loss.
McKegg made a great pass between two defenders to setup Conor Sheary for the game tying goal in the third period. His offensive game, though, really started taking off in the second period.
A few instances stand out in period two.
McKegg showed excellent separation speed through the neutral zone on a transition play [hide] and then made a nifty backhand pass to setup Phil Kessel for a one-time opportunity. Moments later coming down the left side he made a cross-iced pass to Conor Sheary for a high-danger chance but Sheary didn’t one-timer the puck and failed to score. In the third Sheary did one-timer a near identical opportunity on a pass from McKegg and tied the game at 4-4.
There were a lot of promising signs from McKegg who was also dominant in the faceoff circle. McKegg won 13 of 17 draws (76%), including 7-8 (88%) on d-zone draws.
McKegg led the Penguins in shot-attempts differential at 5 vs 5, on the ice for 17 attempts and just 6 against ( 74 CF%).
The Hagelin-McKegg-Kuhnhackl line produced long zone time and a strong cycling ability.
Scoring Summary
1st Period
PIT 6:37 Justin Schultz (1)
Assists: Jake Guentzel, Sidney Crosby
STL 8:31 Brayden Schenn (1)
Assists: Jaden Schwartz, Carl Gunnarsson
STL 17:45 Colton Parayko (1, PPG)
2nd Period
PIT 12:37 Olli Maatta (1)
Assists: Bryan Rust, Evgeni Malkin
STL 15:37 Alex Pietrangelo (1)
Assists: Paul Stastny, Vladimir Sobotka
3rd Period
STL 3:38 Paul Stastny (1)
Assists: Vladimir Tarasenko, Vladimir Sobotka
PIT 13:46 Sidney Crosby (1, PPG)
Assists: Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel
PIT 14:40 Conor Sheary (1)
Assists: Greg McKegg, Bryan Rust
Overtime
STL 1:15 Alex Pietrangelo (2)
Assists: Brayden Schenn, Jaden Schwartz[/hide]
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