Penguins Hold On for Victory in Rollercoaster Game 3

WHAT HAPPENED
Pittsburgh won Game 3 by a score of 7-4 on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena, giving them a 2-1 series lead over the New York Rangers.
Brock McGinn, Jeff Carter (2), Evan Rodrigues (2), Danton Heinen and Jake Guentzel scored for the Penguins, while Louis Domingue made 32 saves.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT
In a game that was an absolute rollercoaster, Mike Sullivan acknowledged that things don't always go your way in this sport. The other team is going to push, which is exactly what the Rangers did in the second period to battle back from a three-goal deficit. But the Penguins head coach couldn't be more proud of the team for how they responded in the third period.
"What might be the most rewarding part for me as the coach in winning this game is that a lot of teams, when you allow a team back into the game in the fashion that we did - in a lot of those instances, a lot of teams don't recover from that," Sullivan said. "I think it speaks volumes for the character of the group and the leadership that we have, that we were able to move by it."
Another positive is that the Penguins checked off a lot of boxes in terms of areas of their game they were looking to improve heading into tonight's matchup, beginning with a fast start.
It only took the Penguins 1:57 to get on the board with a goal from McGinn, who gave his team the early lead they've been looking for, and their first lead of the series. McGinn's shot was originally ruled no goal, but after video review, the call on the ice was overturned.
"I thought we obviously had a great start," Sullivan said. "We had a lot of energy. There was a lot of jump in the building, it was electric. Our players, they feed off of that and I think it really helped the start that we had tonight."
The next box checked: more secondary scoring and power-play goals.
Aside from Evgeni Malkin's overtime-winning goal in Game 1, the rest of the scoring in the first two games of the series came from Pittsburgh's top line. That was not the case tonight, especially in the first period, when all four goals scored came from bottom-six personnel - either at even strength or on the second power-play unit.
"To be able to get contributions throughout our lineup, like we did tonight - our second power play gets a couple of goals for us, for example - those are huge moments for our team," Sullivan said. "And that's what makes a team a team."
After Kaapo Kakko tied the game at 1-1 for the Rangers, Carter regained the lead for Pittsburgh on the man-advantage, which has been quiet recently, with 11:42 left in the first period. But the scoring didn't stop there.
Just over two minutes later, Rodrigues extended the Penguins' lead to 3-1 with another power-play goal. His first playoff goal came at the perfect time, and so did his second when he got on the board again with 4:45 left to send the Penguins into the second period with a 4-1 lead.
"We were being really physical, and we were playing simple and kind of all on the same page," Rodrigues said. "We were hanging onto it down low and when we had lanes to the net, we were getting bodies there and putting pucks there. When you're kind of playing simple hockey like that, it's easy to read off everybody and we got the bounces."
Alexandar Georgiev replaced Igor Shesterkin in net for the Rangers to start the middle frame which, unlike the opening 20 minutes, turned out to be a period in favor of New York. They outshot Pittsburgh 18-7 in the second period, including a 10-0 run to start, and the score after 40 minutes of play reflected that.
Frank Vatrano turned the momentum around with 13:09 left in the middle frame when he cut the Rangers' deficit to 4-2, the start of three unanswered goals. Their third tally came from Artemi Panarin followed by a shorty from Andrew Copp, who tied the game at 4-4.
With an important 20 minutes in front of both teams, it was expected that both sides would come out for the third period battling hard for the next goal, and that they did. But Pittsburgh had to battle extra hard to prevent the Rangers from taking the lead on one of their three power-play opportunities.
With that, the third box was checked in the final period: success on the penalty kill.
A Danton Heinen penalty carried over to start the third period. After successfully killing that off, the Penguins found themselves shorthanded for four more minutes when Malkin headed to the box for tripping and Heinen returned to the box for slashing.
An area of emphasis that the team knew they needed to improve on ended up being a key turning point to break the 4-4 tie after going 3-for-3 on the penalty kill tonight.
"They had three power plays in a row, and Louis stood his ground," Rodrigues said. "Everyone knows he's a capable goalie, is a good goalie and we have the utmost confidence in him. He showed today, especially in the third, that he was our best penalty killer."
"I was very confident that we were going to win that game if we killed those two penalties. It gave us momentum," Domingue added.
Heinen took advantage of that momentum from those successful kills and had the honor of scoring the game-winning goal with 8:58 left in the final frame.
"Bit of a roller coaster, for sure. You hate to be in the box, hate taking penalties, but the kill was unbelievable tonight," Heinen said. "It's tough being in there, but the guys battled for me there and was lucky enough to get one."
From there, the Penguins dominated, and Guentzel and Carter got empty-net goals in the final minutes of the period to ice the 7-4 win.
"You gotta win the third, and I thought we really elevated our game. Not only me, but the whole team," Domingue said "This was our best period of the series; I thought the third period was great. You look at our last 10 minutes of the game, we spent the majority of the time in their zone, which was huge."
OTHER THOUGHTS & OBSERVATIONS
FIRSTS FOR EVERYONE
LINEUP CHANGES
After missing the first two games of the series with a lower-body injury, Jason Zucker returned to the lineup and slotted in on the third line alongside Carter and McGinn, who bumped over to the right wing. That line adjustment moved Rodrigues to Teddy Blueger's right wing, and Brian Boyle remained on the left.
Here's how the lineup looked:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rust
Heinen-Malkin-Kapanen
Zucker-Carter-McGinn
Boyle-Blueger-Rodrigues
Matheson-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Friedman-Ruhwedel