The Penguins improved to 7-2-1 on the season, and 5-0-1 in their last six, after beating St. Louis in a back-and-forth game on Monday at PPG Paints Arena.
“They’re a good team. They’re trying to bounce back,” said Sidney Crosby, who recorded his 1,700th point and passed Mario Lemieux for the most multi-point games in franchise history (498). Full story here.
“They had a tough one last game. So, I think we understood that they’re going to push back. And we did a good job of not letting it get out of hand.”
After getting his first goal of the season to tie the game late in regulation against Columbus on Saturday, Bryan Rust opened the scoring just 39 seconds into the contest.
“I just try to keep with it,” he said. “Obviously, missing the first couple of games (due to injury) is never fun. Had some chances there early on. Didn’t really go my way. But I think I just tried to keep with it. I’ve been around this league long enough (to know) the whole season is going to be a roller coaster. There’s going to be times that are great and times that aren’t.”
Just 16 seconds later, it was the red-hot second line of Anthony Mantha, Evgeni Malkin, and Justin Brazeau who added to Pittsburgh’s lead.
“That whole line has been awesome. They just make plays, one after another,” Parker Wotherspoon said. “They all have confidence. They’re all huge, obviously. Tough second line to play against for other teams, and it’s just huge for our success.”
With his three-assist performance on Monday, Erik Karlsson now has nine helpers in his last six games. Wotherspoon, his D partner, scored his first goal in a Penguins sweater and the second of his career in the second period to regain Pittsburgh’s one-goal lead.
“It’s just a good moment,” Wotherspoon said before adding with a smile, “I don’t score many. So, it was pretty awesome. It felt like it was a good shot, and it was good to put the team up.”
Rust then got his second of the night just 42 seconds into the third before St. Louis cut their deficit to 4-3 at the 4:35 mark of the period. As the Blues began to press with just under five minutes left in regulation, Crosby was sprung on a breakaway and buried his own rebound on St. Louis goaltender Joel Hofer to extend Pittsburgh’s lead to 5-3.
Malkin secured the win with an empty-netter for his 16th point of the season, had him tied for the league lead in scoring when the buzzer sounded.
At 38 and 39, respectively, Crosby and Malkin have combined for 30 points throughout the team’s first ten games this season.
“They’ve been incredible, I never doubted it for a second,” Rust said. “They could be skeletons walking around here, but they’re still going to give everything that they’ve got. They’re going to work as hard as they can, and they’re always going to be leading this team.”
Goaltender Tristan Jarry got the start in between the pipes tonight, continuing on with the team’s goalie rotation implemented by Head Coach Dan Muse. Jarry improved to 4-1-0 on the season and stopped 26 out of 29 shots that he faced.
Muse began his postgame media availability by addressing what happened in the arena tonight – the Penguins’ full statement is here.
“I just wanted to start off by saying, right after the game, I was informed, and the team was informed, about the man who fell from the upper-bowl to the lower-bowl. He was taken to the hospital. I just wanted to start off by saying that our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. Obviously, they all come here for a sports game, and you hear something like that, that kind of puts everything else aside. So again, our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.”