Despite playing in Pittsburgh for the first time in 16 years, the Winnipeg Jets found themselves in an eerily similar situation as before.
The Penguins defeated the Jets in a wild offensive showing as the teams totaled 13 goals, just as they had in their last matchup in Pittsburgh on March 5th, 1996. While the Penguins did not have the services of Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis, they did have Evgeni Malkin who racked up 5 more points to bring his league-leading total to 66. They also got a healthy Jordan Staal who had missed the last 15 games with a knee injury.
Kyle Wellwood started the scoring with his 11th goal of the year 5:17 into the first period. Tobias Enstrom took the puck out of the corner during a delayed penalty and found Wellwood in front of the net.
Three minutes later, the Jets struck again; this time on a fortunate bounce from Penguins’ Cal O’Reilly. Alexander Burmistrov’s shot from the point deflected off of O’Reilly’s knee as he attempted to knock the puck down with his stick. Instead of stopping the puck however, O’Reilly redirected the shot into the back of the net to extend Winnipeg’s lead to two.
From there, the Penguins woke up.
Dustin Jeffrey, whose first two goals of the season were monumental in Pittsburgh’s comeback against Montreal last month, started the comeback trail for the Penguins in this game as well. Jordan Staal chipped the puck along the boards, and past two Jets players, allowing Dustin Jeffrey to lead the odd man rush. Jeffrey skated towards the goal and sniped a shot over the left shoulder of Jets’ goaltender, Ondrej Pavelec, for his third goal of the season.
With the crowd energized for the first time of the day, the Penguins responded by controlling play for the rest of the period.
The Sullivan-Vitale-Jeffrey line dominated on their next shift, controlling the puck in the offensive zone for over a minute. The Jets were forced to ice the puck which led to Pittsburgh’s next goal. Evgeni Malkin won the face-off back to James Neal whose wrist shot found its way past the stick side of Pavelec to tie the game at two.
With four goals after one period, both teams showed they were just getting started.
The Penguins scored the next two goals, both coming on the rush. The Jets left Pavelec on an island to fend for himself in the second period, allowing countless odd-man opportunities for the Penguins. Chris Kunitz gave the Penguins the lead on the power play 3:12 into the second. Kunitz took the pass from Malkin, skated down the far side, and snapped the puck into the net for his 15th goal of the season.
Kris Letang got on the board with his sixth goal of the season when he chipped the puck over Pavelec in front of the net. Letang joined Malkin on the rush to force a 2 on 1. Malkin’s pass was partially deflected by the defenseman, which forced Letang to stop and flip the puck over the goaltender.
Behind 4-2, the Jets scored the next goal to stay in the game as they would for most of the day. After the Jets killed a Penguins’ power play, Tim Stapleton directed a puck behind Marc-Andre Fleury after receiving a pass from Kyle Wellwood who shuffled the puck while laying on his backside behind the net.
The Penguins quickly countered.
Evgeni Malkin took a pass from Chris Kunitz at the blue line and dazzled Pavelec on a breakaway. It was his lone goal of the game but it was also his fourth point of a five point day.
The third period did not slow down either team’s ability to score. Dustin Byfuglien scored to bring the deficit back to one. But the Penguins quickly doubled up the lead, again, with a goal from Richard Park 19 seconds later. The Penguins got a seventh goal from Jordan Staal in his first game back since early January; the Jets countered with a goal from Brian Little.
With under four minutes remaining in a 7-5 game, Andrew Ladd took a retaliatory slashing penalty. The Penguins got their second power play goal of the day from Kris Letang as he jammed in a rebound to put the finishing touches on Pittsburgh’s 31st win of the season.
- Richard Park’s goal was not only the game winner, but also the 100th goal in his career.
- Evgeni Malkin passed Kevin Stevens for eighth on the all-time assists list in franchise history with 296.
- The Penguins host the Tampa Bay Lightning tomorrow afternoon at 2pm.
- The Jets are now 0-20-3, this season, when trailing after two periods.
- The Penguins are 17-0-2 when leading after two periods.
Photo courtesy of Yahoo! sports
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