In a game between two teams that came into tonight’s game on winning streaks, the Pittsburgh Penguins welcomed the Vancouver Canucks for an early-week contest. A fast-paced game saw the Penguins ride a three-goal second period to edge out a 5-1 victory, pushing their win streak to three games.
Game Recap
The Canucks came out firing on all cylinders early on in the opening period, putting plenty of pressure on the Penguins from the opening faceoff. It did not take long for the Canucks to open the scoring, with Filip Hronek finding Elias Pettersson on a quick breakout pass that Pettersson redirected to a driving Conor Garland, who took advantage of an ill-advised “pinch” by Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea in the neutral zone. Garland made a quick move into the Penguins’ zone and beat former Canuck Arturs Silovs with a shot that Silovs probably should have saved to give the Canucks a 1-0 lead less than two minutes in.
The Penguins’ fourth line brought the energy for their squad in the period and were eventually rewarded with Conor Dewar scoring on a deflection of a shot from the point by Parker Wotherspoon to even things up at one a side halfway through the period. Both teams would have a chance on the power play, but neither was able to cash in on the man-advantage, leading to the game being 1-1 after the opening 20 minutes.
The second period stayed at a 1-1 deadlock until the final five minutes, with the Penguins scoring three times in the matter of three minutes. Tommy Novak tallied his first goal as a Penguin on the power play after showing great patience along the halfwall and working his way to the dot and beating Lankinen far side over his blocker before Sidney Crosby buried one over that same blocker after picking up a loose puck off a faceoff to Lankinen’s left and beating him with a great shot. Anthony Mantha wrapped up the three-goal second period after Silovs made two big-time saves that led to Evgeni Malkin leading a rush down the ice. Malkin’s initial shot was saved, but Mantha drove hard to the net and buried the rebound to give the Penguins a 4-1 lead heading into the third period.
The Penguins added to their lead in the third period, with Justin Brazeau tallying his fifth goal of the season on the power play with an assist from Mantha. The goal marked the first time in Brazeau’s career that he recorded a three-point game. The Canucks did make a push in the second half of the period, but strong goaltending from Silovs shut the door and kept the four-goal lead intact.
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In the win, Crosby and Kris Letang reached career milestones. Crosby reached 1,896 career points (regular season and playoffs combined), passing Mario Lemieux for most all-time in Penguins history, while Letang recorded his 600th assist. In doing so, he becomes the 20th defenseman of all-time to reach the milestone. In net, Silovs was rock solid after allowing the lone goal on the opening shot of the night and stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced. In the loss for the Canucks, Lankinen stopped 20 of 25 shots.
What’s Next
The Penguins move to 5-2-0 and will hit the ice again on Thursday (Oct. 23) when they take on the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Florida Panthers. The Canucks saw their three-game winning streak snapped in the loss and are off until Thursday as well, when they travel to Nashville to take on the Predators.
