Not terribly long ago the Penguins were winning games without much help from their special teams.
Those days are looking like more and more of a distant, ugly memory.
A decisive victory in the special teams battle was one of the primary reasons the Penguins stretched their winning streak to seven games with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Bruins on Wednesday at PPG Paints Arena.
The power play scored twice, the unit’s third consecutive game with at least two goals. As an added bonus, both came from the second unit, which has struck for three goals in the past two games.
The penalty kill, mired in a 63-percent funk for a nine-game stretch from Nov. 23-Dec. 10, snuffed out all four of the Bruins' chances and has killed seven in a row over the past two games.
“It’s going in the right direction,” Nick Bonino said. “I think our power play and PK at the same time were kind of stagnant for the last few weeks. We killed off a big five-on-three there. [Matt Murray] made a big save to save that. We got it down in the power play for two goals.”
The penalty kill was called upon early, with Chris Kunitz called for interference at 3 minutes, 49 seconds of the first period. Murray stopped David Pastrnak, the Bruins’ talented young scorer, from the top of the left circle. Murray’s fourth and final save of the kill was a glove save on Brad Marchand.
The improvements ran the gamut. The killers weren’t tugged all over the place, which opens up shooting and passing lanes. Clears were completed. They got timely saves from Murray.
That much became even more apparent later in the period when Patric Hornqvist was called for hooking and Kris Letang took an interference penalty after delivering a hard hit on Pastrnak.
With 1:19 of five-on-three time, the Bruins brought the house, but Murray made another three stops, none of them easy. His last– another stop on Marchand – brought a few “Murray, Murray!” chants.
The Penguins have now gone back-to-back games with a perfect penalty kill for the first time since Nov. 19 at Buffalo and Nov. 21 at home against the Rangers, when they killed all five chances.
“We’ve not been the greatest on the [penalty kill] as of late,” Murray said. “It’s been better the past couple games. It’s an area we’ve taken a lot of pride in. A lot of times that’s the difference in the game. The last couple here we’ve been a lot better. If you can get those kills, you’re going to be better off in the long run.”
The improvement has come with Eric Fehr out of the lineup, too, as Bryan Rust and Tom Kuhnhackl have shared his reps.
The power play was in a one-for-30 funk before breaking out with three goals last Saturday in Tampa when coach Mike Sullivan deployed two defenseman and three forwards.
He stuck with it Monday, and the Penguins picked up another pair of man-advantage goals. No reason to change for Wednesday, Sullivan figured.
Bonino waited, waited and waited some more before firing a shot through some legs and under Tuukka Rask’s arm for the first of the two man-advantage tallies. Conor Sheary got the second when he redirected Brian Dumoulin's shot pass.
That gave the Penguins, already explosive offensively, seven power play goals over their past three games.
Again, like they needed another weapon.
“I think we finally found our stride here,” Sheary said. “With three in the last two games, I think that’s pretty good from a second unit.
“If you can win the teams battle, nine times out of 10 you’re going to win the game as well. Tonight was evidence of that.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: December 15, 2016, 4:40 a.m.
