Just 24 hours after the Penguins picked up their biggest win of the season against a divisional rival, they followed that up with a huge 5-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night in PPG Paints Arena to close out the month of March.
“It’s massive. Just a massive four-point swing for us,” Stuart Skinner said. “Just back-to-back games, especially against those teams we’re fighting spots for. The (Eastern Conference) is so tight, anytime you get two, three wins in a row, that’s a big jump.”
After Captain Sidney Crosby made his return to the lineup against the Islanders on Monday, Evgeni Malkin made his on Tuesday after missing the last four games with an upper-body injury. Right before puck drop, Bryan Rust was made a late scratch, and Avery Hayes slotted back into the lineup.
Exploding for eight goals in the final two periods against the Islanders on Monday, the Penguins picked up where they left off with three goals in the first period
Only four minutes into the game, Pittsburgh’s first line went to work on the forecheck against Detroit’s defensemen. Digging along the boards alongside Egor Chinakhov, Crosby found the loose puck and quickly passed it to Rickard Rakell, who made no mistake and lasered a wrist shot past the blocker side of John Gibson.
“It tells you that we come out big in big moments,” Stuart Skinner said on the start to Tuesday’s game. “We’re a resilient group. If things don’t go our way (or) things do go our way, we just kind of stick to our game plan. That’s what’s so incredible about this group.”
Rakell now has points in 13 of his last 14 games (9G-9A) and is on a 5-game point streak. With the primary assist, Crosby (1,754) is now one point shy of tying Steve Yzerman (1,755) for seventh all-time in NHL scoring.
The Penguins wouldn’t be done there as they continued to control the flow of the game and had spent the majority of the period in the offensive zone. As the team is making a line change, Malkin swooped around the perimeter with the puck and dropped it to Connor Clifton, who had a give-and-go with Anthony Mantha. There would be a scrum in front of Gibson before Mantha got to the loose puck and scored his 30th goal of the season.
“It’s been awesome to see, especially what he came off of last year and coming in here to earn a contract,” Justin Brazeau said. “I’m really happy for him. He’s been a great player, great teammate, and I’m really happy for him.”
Per Pens PR, Anthony Mantha is the ninth Penguins player to score 30 goals in the Sidney Crosby-Evgeni Malkin Era (since 2006-07), joining Crosby (12x), Malkin (6x), Jake Guentzel (3x), Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, Phil Kessel, Chris Kunitz, and James Neal.
After Mantha’s tally, the Penguins continued to control the game and outshot the Red Wings 9-2 halfway through the period. Looking to give his team some life, Jacob Bernard-Docker got into a spirited fight with Connor Dewar that would only add to Pittsburgh’s momentum.
Being recently promoted to the first line alongside Crosby and Rakell, Chinakhov was flying all over the ice on Tuesday night. Receiving a stretch pass from Kris Letang, Chinakhov rapidly entered the zone and shot through the screen of Moritz Seider and in for his 17th goal of the season.
“If you have a lane, just try to shoot,” Chinakhov said. “And then, we [got] lucky [with] everything. Not everything, but most of the shots, it seems. So that's good.”
Through 20 minutes, the Penguins outshot the Red Wings 14-6 and had a commanding 3-0 lead. To start the second period, Cam Talbot came in relief for Gibson.
After the first intermission, Detroit came out onto the ice with more energy and push back. Captain Dylan Larkin scored five seconds into the power play after Mantha went to the penalty box for hooking.
But the Penguins got right back to work and continued to apply pressure in the offensive zone. Most notably, the fourth line of Elmer Soderblom, Connor Dewar, and Noel Acciari found themselves with numerous scoring chances and strong plays along the boards.
With Blake Lizotte currently injured, that has created an opportunity for Soderblom on the fourth line, who was acquired from the Red Wings on March 6.
“It’s a different look. A bigger look,” Acciari said about the six-foot-eight forward. “He’s good with the puck. He’s got that long reach, strong on pucks. He’s kind of slotted right in there. We’ve kind of – after a game or so – (gotten) used to each other. He’s fitting in really well.”
With three assists in Monday’s victory, Brazeau has been getting back to his game after returning from injury. While the goal scoring hasn’t been going in as much as he would’ve liked, Brazeau redirected Clifton’s shot in the second period for his 17th goal of the season.
“It’s a little hard for the confidence, but I’m just trying to stick with it and make sure that I’m getting to the areas that make me successful,” Brazeau said. “Hopefully, they start going in.”
The Red Wings would come so close to scoring in the final minute of the second period when Alex DeBrincat found himself with a wide-open net, but was denied by the right pad of Skinner.
“It was a little bit of a scrambly play, a broken play,” Skinner said. “He was able to make a nice play to my right. I was just able to get my eyes on it and just spread. Did my best to get a pad on it. Able to. That’s big. Especially going into the third. Momentum could have shifted there, but we were able to keep it our way.”
Detroit came out in the third period with desperation and tried to claw itself back into the game. However, it was Skinner again who denied any sort of push from the Red Wings with two phenomenal saves in quick succession on Lark and Copp.
"I mean, he's just super calm, and he's a great guy. He's honestly one of the best guys I've played with, just seeing him,” Ryan Shea said. “We're playing our hearts out in front of both our goaltenders, and hopefully, they can feel it when they're in the crease."
The Penguins added one more goal for safe measure after Acciari battled for the rebound from Shea’s point shot and buried it behind Talbot for the 5-1 lead. In a game where both Crosby and Malkin were limited to just one point each, it’s a testament to the depth of this team.
“That’s the good thing right now,” Acciari said. “When we can go up and down the lineup, take the pressure off the top lines, it’s big. Every goal counts. The fact that we have four lines that can do that is huge for our group. We’ll keep that rolling.”
The Penguins would lock things down for the remainder of the game and walk away with a huge 5-1 victory as Skinner stopped 22 out of 23 shots.
I thought overall, the whole team, especially on a back-to-back in this kind of scenario, it’s a big win for us,” Skinner said.
With these last two games feeling like playoff matchups, the players knew that they had to be at their best. With future Hall of Famers as their leaders, the Penguins know what is expected out of them as they now enter the most critical point of the season.
"Yeah, I think it's the older guys. Like, how calm those guys are, like, even if it's a big win,” Shea said. “For me, it's someone new in this situation, and when you get a big win like that, and you look around and all the guys are like, 'Job's not done and we've been here before, and we've got to keep moving forward.'"
