Moments after the Penguins’ Game 2 loss at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, coach Mike Sullivan pinpointed one area of focus that would need to change if the result was going to also be different.
“One area where we need to improve and get better was on special teams,” Sullivan said. “On both sides.”
Saturday night inside a rocking PPG Paints Arena, the Penguins achieved one half of that objective.
The penalty kill had been reeling recently, allowing six goals over the last six games dating back to the regular season. That included two power play goals through the first two games of the first-round series against the Rangers.
But during the Penguins’ seesaw, 7-4 win in Game 3, a penalty-killing unit that was consistently among the league’s elite in the regular season stopped the bleeding in a big way, holding the Rangers off the board on all three of their power play opportunities.
In the third period, the PK produced two pivotal moments. First, after what Sullivan termed “the worst period of the series” in the second period, a late power play leaked over into the final frame.
“I thought our penalty kill did a terrific job at the beginning of the period,” Sullivan said. “It gave the bench a big boost.”
That successful sequence led to the Penguins swinging the momentum — and ultimately the series. But not before another even more pivotal kill. Late in the third, with Danton Heinen in the box, the Rangers peppered the Penguins with a flurry of shots. The best of the bunch was a crafty one-timer from perennial Hart Trophy candidate Artemi Panarin.
Louis Domingue, the third-string goalie of spicy pork and broccoli fame, threw his entire body at the puck in a desperate and unconventional way.
“I kind of saw him out of the corner of my eye and tried to just put my body in front of it as kind of a wholesale moment,” Domingue said. “I just tried to get the frame in front of it.”
Moments after the Penguins snuffed that Rangers opportunity out, it gave Heinen a chance to redeem himself for the two penalties he committed. He sure did, netting the eventual game-winning goal.
"The kill was unbelievable tonight and Louis back there might have been our best killer,” Heinen said. “The guys battled for me there. I was lucky enough to get one."
But power play? That’s a different story. Well, more accurately a more complicated narrative.
The second unit, sure, they were much improved, showing a shoot-first mentality and a willingness to get to the net front. Evan Rodrigues was the spark behind two power play goals. He ripped one on net early that went through a Jeff Carter screen in front and past Igor Shesterkin. The scorekeepers credited Carter with the tally, saying he got a piece of it.
Later in the first period, the second unit cashed in again. Rodrigues missed the net on his initial shot. But as the puck careened off the end boards, Carter gave it a little bump to find Rodrigues in the slot. He buried the second chance.
However, for all the improvements from the PK and the positive momentum generated by the second power play unit, when the top unit was on the ice it was hard to tell which team had the extra player. One of Sullivan’s favorite phrases is that you never want to give the opposing team’s power play the chance to be the difference. But the Penguins top unit was nearly the difference … in a bad way.
During that troubling second period, as a three-goal lead was coming unraveled, Penguins defenseman Kris Letang scooped the puck at his own defensive zone. With Rangers forward Kevin Rooney barreling in, Letang made a careless pass attempt that was picked off. The play ended with Letang and the puck in the back of the Penguins net and the three-goal lead the Penguins built completely erased.
“Our first power play isn't firing on all cylinders, so to speak right now,” Sullivan said. “But we know how capable they are. And we also believe they can they can fix things really quickly... They're proud guys and they want it to work. When it doesn't go the right way, no one feels more than them.”
Throughout this season, the power play has been a mixed bag. At times, they’ve gone through droughts for weeks. Other stretches, they’ve skyrocketed to the top of the leaderboard.
Ideally, they want to be a unit predicated upon movement. They don’t just want the puck to move but the players, too, in an interchangeable way where every guy knows multiple positions. However, aside from Bryan Rust’s power play goal in Game 1, the top unit has looked disjointed. Of the Penguins nine power play opportunities in the series, the top unit has netted just one goal.
“Sometimes power plays go through struggles and you've got to work through certain things,” Sullivan said. “For me, one of the solutions has to be to simplify and I think that's going to be part of the message.”
Mike DeFabo: mdefabo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDeFabo.
First Published: May 8, 2022, 3:07 a.m.
