Penguins Show Resilience, But Leafs Win in Overtime

Late in the second period of Pittsburgh’s game against Toronto, Matthew Knies capitalized on a turnover at his own blue line, went down and scored with 0.1 seconds on the clock.

It was the second of two goals in that final minute for Toronto, who turned a 4-3 deficit into a 5-4 lead going into that intermission. But the Penguins regrouped and found a goal just 10 seconds into the third off the stick of Rickard Rakell, and managed to get one point in their 6-5 overtime loss.

“Yeah, I mean, it was the worst-case scenario there, but we had two ways to go between the second and third period,” said Rakell, who scored twice in the contest. “We could either try to respond or just give up, so, I thought we played a better third period and it kept us in the game. They're a good team, but tough not to get the two points.”

After going down 2-0 to Boston on Saturday, the Penguins talked about wanting to have a better start in the second half of this back-to-back. Unfortunately, they found themselves down by that same score early in the game, but this time, did a much better job of responding – scoring three straight goals to take the lead.

Auston Matthews, one of the NHL’s best goal scorers, evened it up just 4:08 into the middle frame, but Bryan Rust answered with less than five minutes to go before the tide turned late.

“I thought for a lot of the night we were pretty good,” Rust said. “When we did make mistakes, they were fairly big mistakes. And they’ve got some guys who can score some goals over there.”

Rookie goalie Joel Blomqvist stopped 27 shots for the Penguins after playing well in a relief performance on Tuesday against the Flyers. He made some timely saves throughout the night against a team filled with high-end talent, calling it a good opportunity to learn and grow.

“Joel's a young kid and he's trying to find his way and establish himself in this league,” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said. “It's a hard league, and so we recognize that we're going to go through some ups and downs. He's no different than any other young kid that's trying to compete. But he's a very good goalie, we believe he has great potential moving forward.”

Here are a couple of notes from the game.

500 CLUB

With his goal in the first period, Rakell became the fastest to reach 500 career points among active Swedish-born players.

He is the 37^th Swedish-born player in NHL history to reach it, and among the 12 active Swedes with 500 career points, Rakell is the eighth-fastest to get it.

“Obviously, lucky enough to play in this league for a long time,” Rakell said. “It’s a big milestone for myself.”

MOVING UP THE RANKS

With a goal and two helpers, tonight marked Sidney Crosby’s 185^th career three-point game, which is the fifth most in NHL history. Crosby has points in his last seven-consecutive home games played dating back to February 1 (3G-7A-10PTS).

Crosby’s 611th career goal allowed him to surpass Bobby Hull (610) for sole possession of 18th place on the NHL’s all-time goals list. And with his 1,050^th career helper, which came on Rust’s goal, the captain cracked the NHL’s top-10 all-time assists list – moving past a fellow all-time great in Gordie Howe. Crosby is the only active player in the top-10 on the NHL’s all-time assists list and the NHL’s all-time points list (9th).

“He's incredible,” said Maple Leafs forward William Nylander, who ranks second in the NHL with 35 goals on the season. “He's one of the best players to ever play. I'm not surprised that he's playing the way he is. He's an incredible player."

“He's still just as skilled. It was hard defending him today,” Knies said. “He was making plays. I think he's been remarkable for their team and their success. So, it's fun to play against him, for sure."