In a season full of bottom for the Pittsburgh penguinsThere were a few light points.
And their best players have one.
Friday, the Penguins withdrew from a deficit of two goals and scored four unanswered goals to defeat the Devils from New Jersey4-2. And their best players paved the way.
Evgeni Malkin had a goal and two points, Sidney Crosby scored the winner of the match, and Bryan Rust established a new career summit when he scored his 29th goal of the empty net in the decreasing minutes of the third period. Newly recalled Valtteri Puustinen also added an electric game goal.
It was completely at night for the big guys. And Rust continues to prove why he is one of the most underestimated wingers of the game.
"For me, it’s special," Rust said to set his new career summit in goals. "Obviously, the success of the team is the first and you want to win matches, winning championships. But, second to that, it is personal success, so whenever you can take new steps and get new careers in career – especially after 10 years – this kind means that you are probably doing something good."
The Devils took a good start in it. They scored their first goal just 15 seconds from the match, when striker Erik Hala managed to put himself behind the defense of the Penguins for an opportunity to escape and did not miss. They increased 2-0 six minutes later on a goal from Ondrej Palat just after the expiration of a game of power of the Devils.
"We did not have the beginning we wanted," Head coach Mike Sullivan said. "It’s hockey. What I loved this evening is resilience, or certain resolution, where we did not leave it in snowball. And it could have."
But, as Sullivan said, it was not a snowball – and it had a lot to do with the power game of the Penguins.
After Malkin reduced the Devils advance to a before the end of the first period, the Penguins had an opportunity for a rapid power game at the start of the second when the Devils Brett Pesce defender left to hang on. After a solid movement on the advantage of man, Malkin launched the washer towards the net, and he struck Puustinen on the way. This goal equaled the match at 2-2.
Then, in the third period, Crosby took advantage of a strong spice penalty by the old Penguin Cody Glass, which was treated in New Jersey on the deadline for trade. The solid and simple movement of the washer was, once again, at the forefront of the tally, while the quarter-back Power Play, Matt Grzelcyk, distributed a net to Rust, who found Crosby at the rear door to give the Penguins the 3-2 advance.
Rust added the Vide -Netter insurance afterwards, but it is the power game – now classified seventh in the league after having scored six consecutive games – which earned the Penguins the two clean points.
The advantage of man was another positive point in a differently disappointing season of the Penguins.
"I think we just play really simple," said Grzelcyk, whose two points of the night put him only two timid for having reached 40 in the season. "We are really effective in moving the washer, and we don’t really have a game game that we like to execute. We involve the five guys. And I thought we had done a good job tonight, just spread them, put them a little on the run … and then open from there."
It also helps power to play when team stars shine. And, despite the situation in which the penguins are – Miss the playoffs for the third consecutive season – Each guy in the play knows that the team has a lot to play.
And it starts with the collection of future temple-famers in this locker room.
"We are not in playoffs, but we have a lot of pride on the line," Grzelcyk said. "We want to build something for the years to come. There are so many great players who have been playing here for a long time, and we must continue to fight and not to abandon the season. I think we have done a good job since we were eliminated."
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