PITTSBURGH — The Penguins this calendar year have had few convincing wins, the rare complete game in which they actually displayed focus and fire from wire to wire.
Sunday’s win at PPG Paints Arena was definitely not one of them. But one dominant period was enough to eke one out against one of the NHL’s worst teams.
Propelled by a two-goal evening from Rickard Rakell, the Penguins jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the rival Philadelphia Flyers before holding on to win 4-2.
The critical victory, which came in Kris Letang’s 1,000th career game, moved the Penguins back into the Eastern Conference’s last playoff spot. With five games left in the regular season, they lead the Florida Panthers by one point in the standings.
Rakell got the Penguins going with a pair of goals during the opening period.
The first was a total fluke. His one-timer after an Evgeni Malkin faceoff win sailed over the crossbar, caromed off the glass and fluttered back over the Flyers net. It then hit Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson on the backside and dropped in.
Rakell’s second was more deliberate and required a high degree of skill. With the Penguins on the power play, Malkin steered a slap pass toward Rakell. From the bumper spot between the hash marks, Rakell redirected the puck past the goalie, lifting his stick just a few inches then chipping his shot like a golfer.
The Penguins went 0 for 6 on the power play in Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Boston Bruins. Rakell’s precision tally came on their first opportunity Sunday.
Bryan Rust increased their cushion to 3-0 with a breakaway goal in the second period. Sidney Crosby flipped a subtle backhand pass to spring him.
Rust has rediscovered his finishing touch at the right time for Pittsburgh. After he went 16 games without scoring with a goalie in net, he has three goals in the last two games. He buried two and added an assist in the loss to Boston.
Casey DeSmith was back in goal for the first time since his poor showing Tuesday in Detroit. He was hardly under duress Sunday, but he did give Pittsburgh a chance to build an early cushion with key first-period saves on Morgan Frost and Travis Konecny. He robbed Konecny with his glove right on the goal line.
Nicolas Deslauriers ended DeSmith’s shutout bid in the third period. Then Konecny upped the anxiety level by making it a 3-2 game with 2:29 remaining.
Ryan Poehling scored an empty-netter to secure the two points for Pittsburgh.
ICE CHIPS
— The Penguins honored Letang with a pregame ceremony that featured a video tribute and heartfelt messages from Crosby and Malkin. Letang’s son, Alex, also took the ice with the team in player gear prior to the opening puck drop and introduced Pittsburgh’s starting lineup, including “our dad,” on the Jumbotron.
— Letang wasn’t the only Penguins player who celebrated a notable milestone on Sunday. Rust, his longtime teammate, skated in his 500th career game.
— Ten of Rakell’s 27 goals this season have been scored on the power play.
— Malkin in the second period took three minor penalties, all of which the Penguins killed off. In the third, he tacked on another minor, plus a 10-minute game misconduct for barking at the officials after possibly being clipped by a high stick.
— To open Sunday’s game, the Penguins used the same lines and defense pairs as the previous two games. The lone healthy scratch was Alex Nylander.
— Injured forward Nick Bonino and defensemen Marcus Pettersson, Jan Rutta and Dmitry Kulikov all skated on an individual basis Sunday. Mike Sullivan said one or more of those players may return before the end of the regular season.
— Top defense prospect Owen Pickering made his pro debut over the weekend. The 19-year-old was held without a point and was a minus-1 in each of his first two games on his amateur tryout agreement with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
STAT N’AT
2 – teams in NHL history to have a trio of teammates play their first 1,000 games with that club. They are the Penguins with Letang, Crosby and Malkin and the Los Angeles Kings with Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty.
COMING UP
The Penguins have a scheduled day off Monday and in the afternoon will travel to New Jersey ahead of Tuesday night’s Metro matchup versus the Devils.
