After cutting Detroit’s lead to 2-1 during the second period, Connor Dewar added to his goal with a fight early in the third period, and gave his team a boost that dragged them back into the game.
“Anytime a guy gets hit like that and stands up for himself, it pulls everyone into the fight,” Robby Fabbri said. “At that point, we’re doing it for him as well.”
Shortly after the fisticuffs, Pittsburgh rattled off two goals. The first came from Fabbri, the former Red Wing who is attending camp on a PTO. The second came from Phil Tomasino, whose power-play goal gave the team a 3-2 lead in the game and helped the Penguins walk away with their first win of the preseason.
“They did a great job. It’s not easy to climb the mountain, especially when it’s 2-1,” said goaltender Arturs Silovs about the team’s slow start to the game. “We managed to get the win, that’s what matters.”
Tristan Jarry played the first half of the game before Silovs finished the second half, who stopped all seven shots he faced.
“Tonight was a great example of everyone coming together, the coaches coming together, and us following it,” Fabbri said. “We didn’t help [Jarry] out as much as we would’ve liked. It wasn’t a great first period by us, we knew that right away, and we answered the bell.”
Here is the lineup that Dan Muse and his staff put together:
Danton Heinen – Tommy Novak – Phil Tomasino
Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Filip Hallander
Robby Fabbri – Aaron Huglen – Valtteri Puustinen
Sam Poulin – Nolan Renwick – Aidan McDonough
Ryan Graves – Connor Clifton
Ryan Shea – Matt Dumba
Alexander Alexeyev – Jack St. Ivany
Tristan Jarry
Arturs Silovs
More from the Penguins head coach and his thoughts on the team’s win:
The goaltending position usually is under a lot of scrutiny, but maybe so a little bit more of this year. Just what did you see from the two goalies you had tonight?
I think what the goalies saw was two kind of different games. Like, the beginning of the first period, we weren't very good. We were very loose. I think they got a lot of their opportunities there in the first. I thought we tightened things up, we were better in the second and the third. So, when you look at that, I think the game probably looked a little bit different for both guys. Right now, I think it's one of those where we go back and we're going to watch, and I'm going to talk with (goalie coach) Andy Chiodo, who's going to really break down the game from the goaltending standpoint. Then we'll evaluate from there. But also, we're still in the front half of our exhibition season, which means that for Tristan, today was his first time in the net in exhibition. We're always going back and we're looking at everything. But for me to make a comment right now, probably go back and watch the film.
What did you think of Philip Tomasino’s game?
I think the game kept getting better. I think him and his line, starting in the second period, it was pretty consistent there where they were getting chances. We were in the offensive zone more. And they weren't just chances, it was starting to get to the inside. Good looks, and some of them didn't connect. Then obviously, it was good for him too, to get rewarded there with that power-play goal. Because I think the power play, they had a couple early on that were a little bit off in terms of the execution. They were trying to do the right thing, we just weren't executing. So, a credit to Phil, but also to that power play group with sticking with it and then executing in a really important time in the game.
Connor Dewar’s fight at the beginning of the third period seemed to energize the team. What have you seen from his preseason thus far?
I think a little bit of everything. He and Lizotte have gotten a lot of time on the penalty kill the last couple of games, and they've done a really good job. He's a guy who gets in on the fore check, a big goal there. That was a time in the game where you talked about two big momentum swings that he had his fingerprints all over. A big goal there to get us going a little bit more offensively, and then a fight there to follow it up. And he had some other big moments there late in the game as well. Those are the types of things he's shown in his ability to impact the game and maybe swing the momentum. And he's showing it in different ways.
Jack St. Ivany got the primary assist on Dewar’s goal – what has struck you about him in the last little bit here?
I think it's both ends of the ice. I think for all the defensemen, the way the game's played now, everybody's got to be involved. Everybody's got to be in motion. And sometimes it's just to be able to create space for other guys. So, he's been doing that. He's been doing that on a pretty consistent basis in the offensive zone, which I think there's some more signs there in terms of us getting into a little bit of an offensive rhythm tonight. There's still a lot of work to do. But he's been a guy who's been involved. If he sees open ice, he'll jump in, jump out. Then on the defensive side, he's a guy who had some really good moments there tonight that I can think of, taking away time and space, reading where that next play was going to go and just being quick there to close and get a stop there in the defensive zone. It might seem like a little thing, but that's a really important part of the game.
