Penguins/Toronto Recap: Leafs strike in OT to win 6-5 in opposite of a goalie duel

It wasn’t a good day for the masked men in Pittsburgh, which led to a chaotic 6-5 afternoon game

Pregame

Only a few lineup changes, P.O. Joseph’s injury from yesterday prevents him from going today, which puts Ryan Graves back in there. Joel Blomqvist rotates into the crease for the second day on the back-to-back. A few changes slide around on the lines where Phil Tomasino joins Evgeni Malkin but nothing too dramatically different.

First period

The good news: the Penguins don’t give up a goal on the first shot they see for the fourth straight game.

The bad news: they do give up a goal within the fifth shot allowed for the eighth straight time.

Can’t help if it helps or hurts that it happens in a comical series of errors. First, Blomqvist plays the puck out in a direction that Ryan Graves can’t handle and has to bail and smack the puck away and not in a safe area. That was compounded by Toronto’s centering pass jumping off Evgeni Malkin and perfectly to Bobby McMann. Even when McMann completely whiffed on the shot attempt, it still ended up being a terrible development for the Pens since it slid to a wide open Max Domi who was about three feet away and in a much better shooting position. Anything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong. 1-0..

It gets worse when the Leafs score their second goal of the game by the 4:39 mark. Blomqvist is worried about the guy sitting at the back door (probably for good reason) so he doesn’t completely square up to the shooter. That’s a big mistake at the NHL level, the shooter is going to put the puck in the net, as Connor Timmons does. 2-0 TOR.

Like Homer Simpson against Drederick Tatum, the home team may have been lulling their opponents into a false sense of security (yeah, let’s go with that). The rope-a-dope was on, Ryan Shea blasted a puck that went in, which eventually was credited to Cody Glass, 2-1 game.

Rickard Rakell stays hot with his second goal in as many days, converting a shot that served as a pass against the back wall by Matt Grzelcyk. 2-2 game.

Pittsburgh was awarded the first power play of the game and goalie Joseph Woll had his controller freeze up, failing to react to a quick but far out shot from Sidney Crosby that snuck in five hole. The Pens are up to a 3-2 lead!

The Pens get another power play, they don’t score this time but it at least has a lot more life and effort than most of what they put out there yesterday.

Shots are 16-13 PIT in a wild and wide open first period.

Second period

Toronto comes out strong in the second period after only recording two shots in the latter half of the first. Some Pens puck watching allows Auston Matthews the time and space to snap a quick shot along the ice that Blomqvist can’t match. 3-3 game.

Tomasino attempts a wraparound that nearly gets the goal back but the defender and Woll team up to keep the puck out at the last second.

Kris Letang takes Pittsburgh’s first penalty of the game but Toronto doesn’t score on their power play.

Bryan Rust would get back on the scoreboard to put the Pens back ahead. Crosby used time to freeze Oliver Ekman-Larsson and then passed it by him for Rust to explode in towards the goalie alone. Rust finishes on the backhand, 4-3 PIT.

But the Pens can’t get out of the period. Jake McCabe makes a great long lead pass as Pittsburgh is changing to spring John Tavares on the breakaway. He quickly sizes up a shot that gets by Blomqvist and it’s a 4-4 game.

In fact, they can’t even get out with a tie. Matthew Knies steals the puck and sprints down the ice as time is running out on the period. He fires as the clock reaches 0.0 but upon review there was still 0.1 seconds left by the time the puck entered the net. Wow. 5-4 Toronto beats the buzzer to take a lead.

Third period

Not to be outdone in the bad goaltending duel, Woll gives his latest submission when Rakell takes the puck to the net on his backhand and it just kinda jumps in. Nice play by Rakell to go to the net strong and sweep it in but just 10 seconds in the game turns again. 5-5 with a ton of time to go.

Amazingly that’s the only goal scored in the third period as the game finally settles down for a while. The Pens get a point out of it.

Overtime

But they won’t get two points for the standings, since they never control the puck in OT. Auston Matthews wins the opening faceoff and the Leafs are in the mode to find the right time to strike. William Nylander gets it, one minute into OT with a long range shot that slings right on by Blomqvist. 6-5 TOR win.

It’s a fitting finish for the Penguins to be a step slow and have Nylander weave through them and then their goalie get beat on a shot he probably should have had. So it goes.

Some thoughts

• It’s amazing how fast something as modest as one single goal can completely tilt a power play from looking completely dead (like it was yesterday against Boston) into a confident, swarming, dangerous group like the Penguins did today. Nothing can go from cold to hot and reverse like a power play.
• Blomqvist was making his 15th NHL appearance of the season today but illustrated some young player growing pains in the first period. Be it on him for a pass to put Graves in a tough spot or on Graves to not be able to handle a standard bump out to him, that’s not an occurrence that usually happens to experienced players. Then the split second decision to align to play the pass instead of the shot basically handed away a second goal. That kinda stuff is going to happen but ideally if Blomqvist is going to have a long NHL career the frequency has to be dialed down in short order.
• The rest wasn’t much prettier. Moneypuck had Toronto with 2.02 expected goals after 40 minutes. Their actual total: 5. Not a winning formula for the Pens.
• Significant day for Crosby, his assist on the Rakell goal tied Gordie Howe for NHL all-time assists, then the assist on Rust’s goal had Crosby move ahead of Howe. Crosby’s goal put him past Bobby Hull in that category.
• John Tavares is “only” 34 but had a classic old guy finish on his breakaway to just go ahead and shoot it real quick before he can get caught with backside pressure. Vet move, no need to try to skate in and deke, just shoot. Knies didn’t have much of a choice with the clock ticking down but used every bit of time he had left to make a nice play.
• End of the second period sums the Penguins’ season up in a nutshell. Shouldn’t give the puck away to allow a chance, but they did. Should probably be able to count on the goalie or at least the clock to save them, but neither do. All the good things they’ve done up to that point unraveled. Just the way it’s gone this year.
• Yesterday’s recap highlighted the mini-goal slumps of Rust and Rakell, which ended with Rakell’s garbage time goal yesterday. That continued today with the top two wingers on the team joining forces to score three goals today. That’s the type of production the Pens need out of them to compete.

The Pens hit the road for three games next week, all against teams above the playoff line.