Penguins/Wild Recap: Crosby and Malkin take final bragging rights against Fleury

The Pens break a four-game losing streak, Crosby and Malkin provide the offense needed to down Fleury and Minnesota

Pregame

The Penguins get residual trade deadline adds by seeing Conor Timmons and Connor Dewar making their debuts for the team. Ryan Graves and Danton Heinen slide out of the lineup to accommodate them. Tristan Jarry gets the nod for his first NHL game in almost two months.

The Wild give Marc-Andre Fleury a start in his final game playing against the Penguins.

First period

It turns into a goalie duel to start things off. Jarry looks pretty strong, Fleury is good on his end. No goals, the Pens take one penalty late but kill it off and then see it neutralized by a Minnesota penalty.

Second period

The second starts much like the first, good goaltending and plenty of Wild power plays. The Wild get four minutes for a double-minor to Vlad Kolyachonok but fan frustration rises as zone time leads to nothing but passes around the perimeter and no shots on goal or dangerous looks.

Deep into the second, the Pens break the cycle of the game and (finally) open up the scoring. Evgeni Malkin does the trick, beating his old bud Fleury on a second attempt from down near the net on the power play. 1-0 Pittsburgh.

It’s not much for breathing room but the Pens take a lead into the final intermission for the first time since Feb. 7th.

Third period

Pittsburgh finds some space with another goal. Sidney Crosby follows up on a rebound from a shot by Erik Karlsson and Fleury over-slides and can only watch the puck flutter by him. 2-0 Pens.

Minnesota’s Marcus Johansson cleans out Timmons almost the same way that Malkin got penalized on earlier in the period, but the refs take mercy on the trailing home team and don’t call it. That leads to Ryan Hartman getting in alone and his shot beats Jarry to get the Wild on the board. 2-1 with 5:06 to go.

The Wild don’t get any closer though. They lift Fleury for an extra attacker and Crosby is able to poke a puck into the empty net. 3-1.

Some thoughts

• It’s only too perfect that Malkin and Crosby were the goalscorers against Fleury in the last time they will see him in a competitive game. There haven’t been too many storybook moments for the Pens lately but that’s a nice memory to make.
• Nice to see the Penguins break a four-game losing streak. Yeah, yeah for draft purposes it’s not a bad thing to drop games, but they’re not going to lose 20 straight to end the season. Gotta win some just from the competitive law of averages and this was a nice one to get against Fleury.
• Jarry’s taken enough heat and deservedly so but his return to the NHL couldn’t have gone much better. And the team in front of him blocked a season-high 26 shots, solid effort by them and more evidence that no one has checked out and is still invested in trying to play the complete game.
• New guy reports: Timmons only played 11:49 but looked pretty good to the eye. One shot on goal and four hits. He moves well and positionally looks like a real life NHL defenseman, and the Penguins certainly can use more players that fit the bill in that department for this season and beyond.
• Dewar was less noticeable, but he did have two hits, a blocked shot and a takeaway. Not a bad little debut but his upside doesn’t look super-high at this point. He’s got 16 more games to make a case for being in the plans for next season so we’ll see how it goes.
• The Pens had a good game on the penalty kill, going a perfect 6/6. Today that meant more about Minnesota being terribly ineffective in that department rather than Pittsburgh dominating, but results are results.
• Tommy Novak left the game with a lower body injury and didn’t return. That’s a bummer if it costs him any time just as soon as he’s been settling in and getting to know the team and his teammates.

The Pens return to Pittsburgh and get back to action on Tuesday night, against a Vegas team that made it look easy on Friday night.