Before Pittsburgh hit the road for a three-game trip, Bryan Rust acknowledged how difficult this time of year is, especially with the team struggling to find results ahead of the upcoming trade deadline.
“For us, we’ve just got to keep taking it one day at a time,” the longtime Penguins forward said. “I think we’ve got to just get through this week. We’ve got to stay together as a team. And just take each day as it comes.”
The Penguins did a tremendous job of that on Tuesday in Colorado, their last game before the deadline hits at Friday at 3 PM Eastern time, where they played much better than the final score indicated.
It was a one-goal game for most of the night before the Avalanche converted a late power play and tacked on a couple of empty-netters for a 4-1 win. Rickard Rakell tallied for Pittsburgh, while Alex Nedeljkovic made 21 saves.
“I loved our team game,” Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan said. “I thought the guys played hard tonight. There was structure. There was collective effort in all three zones. I thought it was a good hockey game for 56 minutes. Got an unfortunate penalty late in the game. Our penalty kill has an opportunity to get it done and we don’t. But overall, I thought the team game was really good.”
The Penguins had a particularly strong opening frame, an area they’ve been vocal about wanting to improve. They had given up at least one first-period goal in the previous nine games.
After a scoreless first period, Colorado opened the scoring in the second with a goal from Artturi Lehkonen, who buried a feed from Nathan MacKinnon on a sequence started by Cale Makar.
“We just got stuck out there for a little bit,” Sidney Crosby said. “Obviously, they're dangerous. We were just a little bit out of position there. They find holes, they find seams, and that's what they did. But I thought for the most part, they're a really good team off the rush and in-zone, and for the most part, we did a pretty good job.”
Crosby’s line tied it up late in the second period, with the captain earning the secondary assist after Rust set up Rickard Rakell for a tap-in at the blue paint.
That was Rakell’s 29th goal of the season, bringing him one shy of his third career 30-goal campaign. Rust, who suited up for his 620th game as a Penguin, surpassed Ron Schock for the 10th-most games played in franchise history. Rust extended his point streak to seven games against Colorado (4G-4A-8PTS).
They couldn’t find a power-play goal on two tries in the second period, and after Anthony Beauvillier was called for tripping with just over five minutes to go in regulation, the Avalanche converted. The Penguins then couldn’t convert with the extra attacker in the last minute-plus.
“It's one of those games that you hope you find a way to win it because we did a lot of good things,” Crosby said. “Unfortunately, we didn't, and it's been kind of going that way since the break - where we've put some really good games together and feel like we deserve better, but you don't get participation points. So, you gotta find a way to win games.”
Note: Defenseman Vladislav Kolyachonok made his Penguins debut tonight after being claimed off of waivers from Utah last month. The coaching staff had been trying to familiarize themselves with his game before inserting him into the lineup.
“I thought Vlady was good,” Sullivan said. “His mobility was evident. It was hard to get a read on his overall game, because we haven't had too many practices, and the ones we've had have been more recovery skates than anything. It was nice to see him in a game, and I thought he was getting back to pucks. I thought he made some really nice plays with the puck. He defended well with his stick, but his mobility was probably the thing that jumped out at me the most.”
