Penguins Allow Three Unanswered Goals, Still Come Out on Top
The Pittsburgh Penguins watched a three-goal lead slip away, but they managed to bounce right back for a win.
Regardless of if the Pittsburgh Penguins were facing Marc-Andre Fleury or not, they got some positive news on the injury front.
After being listed as game-time decisions, Rickard Rakell, Noel Acciari, and Chad Ruhwedel were all making their return to the Penguins lineup.
With those faces back in the lineup, and some changes made to the defensive lines, the Penguins looked to put together a much better performance than their 7-0 thumping at the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
First Period
The feeling out process between the two teams was pretty profound as they combined for only a handful of shots before the opening goal.
Reilly Smith found a poke check from Valtteri Puustinen to give the Penguins the early 1-0 lead.
It didn’t take long for the Penguins faithful to voice their opinion in the Wild’s goaltending decision either as a loud ‘we want Fleury’ chant broke out.
Aside from Smith’s tally, it was a pretty low-event first period; the Penguins clocked 15 shots on goal and the Wild accumulated nine.
Second Period
The Penguins entered the second frame with some left over power play time and they made sure to take advantage.
A huge blast from the point from Erik Karlsson was deflected perfectly to the corner of the cage by Jake Guentzel.
The tally was the Penguins fifth power play goal in the last four games, an impressive number after their huge drought.
The Penguins weren’t done piling on the offense when just a few minutes later Puustinen notched his second assist of the night on a perfect decision to dish to Evgeni Malkin.
Puustinen’s assist gave him his first career multi-point game, but he was still searching for that first NHL goal.
The Wild finally broke through off of an unfortunate bounce; a pass deflected off of Penguins’ defenseman John Ludvig’s skate and ended up on the stick of a wide-open Ryan Hartman.
Not much later, the Wild crawled within a goal after a scrum in the corner opened up a good pinch opportunity for Jake Middleton.
A few penalties piled up for the Penguins and Wild opening up a 4-on-3 opportunity for the Penguins to end the period.
The second frame came to a close with the Penguins holding onto a 3-2 lead.
Third Period
The Penguins weren't able to capitalize on the remaining 4-on-3 chance with the fresh ice, keeping the Wild within one.
That one went away with relative ease as the Wild tied the game on a high tip from Vinni Lettieri.
The Penguins wouldn't be denied as another power play opportunity was taken full advantage of.
Sidney Crosby was in the right place at the right time to have a puck bounce right to his stick while he was free in front of the Wild cage.
The Penguins power play now had six goals in four games.
With the minutes winding down, the Wild pulled Filip Gustavsson for the extra attacker.
Alex Nedeljkovic took a chance at the empty net in the closing seconds, but it went wide .
The final seconds ticked away and the Penguins found a way to seal a victory despite allowing a 3-0 lead completely slip away.
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