After the game against Tampa Bay on Tuesday, Bryan Rust said that the Penguins had their chances to score, but just failed to convert. Two days later, they cashed in on said chances when they beat Philadelphia, 6-3, at PPG Paints Arena.
Justin Brazeau, Bryan Rust, Egor Chinakhov, Blake Lizotte, Sidney Crosby and Connor Dewar all scored. Stuart Skinner made 30 saves for his fourth win in his last five outings, and got some support down at the other end after the Penguins had scored just one goal in each of their last three outings prior to this one.
"I think it's been coming across the last few games. Inside the room, you could feel it building, we were getting chances," Lizotte said. "Once one goes, they seem to all go. So, hopefully, we can keep finding the back of the net.”
The Penguins went on the man-advantage just 23 seconds into the period. It was Pittsburgh’s second unit that got on the board after Brazeau converted a beautiful tic-tac-toe play. Shortly after, the Penguins went back to the power play, and Rust beat Samuel Ersson glove side for an early 2-0 lead.
“I thought we gave ourselves some opportunities tonight and capitalized on them,” Crosby said. “A big goal from [Brazeau] there, too. For them to get out there and get that one early, I think, took the pressure off us, too.”
Crosby and Kris Letang, who has been filling in on the top unit with Erik Karlsson out, assisted on Rust’s 17th goal of the season. The captain's helper gave him 50 points on the year, the 19th time he has reached that plateau in his career.
In a period that was filled with special teams work, it was Pittsburgh who came out on top after going 2-for-3 on the man-advantage and successfully killing off two Flyers power-play opportunities.
In the second, the Penguins built on their lead after Evgeni Malkin set up Chinakhov for a goal, but the Flyers started to gain momentum. They outshot Pittsburgh 10-2 at one point, with Skinner making some key saves to thwart the Flyers’ push. The biggest was his left pad save off forward Denver Barkey, who found himself all alone in front of the net.
"They're dangerous, and they had a lot of pushback there in the second," Crosby said. "I thought he was really good. He was solid. They generated some pretty good chances, and he was able to just calm things down for us."
Even though Philadelphia was able to get one, the Penguins' fourth line found a response, with Connor Dewar, Lizotte, and Noel Acciari shifting the momentum to go into the locker room with a 4-1 lead.
“That line brings a lot of energy and plays the right way for the whole 60 minutes every single time,” Skinner said. “They’re getting shots, they’re going into the dirty areas, getting in front of the goalie. It’s amazing hockey to watch. I think that’s why that line is very successful.”
Carrying that energy into the third period, Lizotte laid a big hit on Barkey in the neutral zone and answered the call when Matvei Michkov challenged him to a fight.
"When you get to have moments like that, where it kind of sparks the crowd, those are the things that you remember playing in this league," Lizotte said. "Especially in this city, it gets kind of a rap for being a blue-collar city, which is kind of my personality. So, it felt great, and it was awesome, and I am super appreciative of the fans we get to play in front of each night."
The fans at PPG Paints Arena grew even louder as Michkov’s penalty on the play led to a Crosby power-play goal, followed up with yet another goal from the fourth line, this time off the stick of Dewar.
Once again, the Flyers pushed back, this time scoring two goals in the middle of the third period. But the Penguins ultimately got the job done.
"I think if you look back at kind of the history of our season, we've let some leads go that we definitely shouldn't have. I think it just shows the learning curve that we’ve made," Lizotte said. "In games like this, you have to control emotion, especially when momentum is maybe not in your favor at the moment, when you're protecting the lead. Those moments within a game where it could go sour quickly, you have to find a way to find momentum, and I think we did a really good job of that tonight."
