NHL - Pens Round Up - November 22-27, 2017

Vancouver Canucks @ Penguins 5-2 - Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Brock Boeser scored twice to help the Vancouver Canucks defeat the Penguins 5-2 at PPG Paints Arena. One night after scoring two goals against the Philadelphia Flyers, he gave the Canucks a 1-0 lead at 3:52 of the first period. After receiving a pass from Sven Baertschi, Boeser slipped by a falling Brian Dumoulin before shooting over Matt Murray's glove to extend his point streak to five games. Boeser, who had four points (three goals, one assist) against Pittsburgh in a 4-2 win on Nov. 4, scored again, this time on a power play, to put Vancouver ahead 4-1 at 9:47 of the second period. He has six goals in his past four games.

The Canucks (11-8-3) won twice in two days by a combined score of 10-4. They won 5-2 at the Flyers on Tuesday. The Penguins (11-9-3) lost a second straight home game in regulation after beginning the season 6-0-1 in Pittsburgh; they lost 2-1 to the Chicago Blackhawks at home on Saturday.

Jake Guentzel cut Vancouver's lead to 4-2 with his second power-play goal of the game at 1:24 of the third period.
Brandon Sutter scored into an empty net to make it 5-2 with 1:20 left. After Boeser's first goal, Guentzel tied it 1-1 on a power play 6:28 into the first before the Canucks took the lead 2:05 later. Phil Kessel backpedaled into a piece of Sidney Crosby's broken stick in the left circle, allowing Thomas Vanek to steal the puck and charge toward the crease. Murray stopped Vanek's wrist shot, but Loui Eriksson scored on the rebound to make it 2-1 at 8:33 of the first.

Derrick Pouliot made it 3-1 on a power play with his first goal of the season at 7:08 of the second period. He returned to Pittsburgh for the first time since the Penguins traded him to the Canucks on Oct. 3. Pittsburgh selected Pouliot in the first round (No. 8) of the 2012 NHL Draft. Anders Nilsson made 43 saves for Vancouver. Canucks defenseman Erik Gudbranson left with an upper-body injury after playing 9:46. Green said he would have more information regarding Gudbranson's status Thursday.

"We're making soft plays at the [blue] line and they're knocking pucks down. As a result, we don't have the opportunity to establish the kind of game we want to play." Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.

"I think our start cold have been a whole lot better. But also, pretty much all the goals they got were kind of hilarious, if you think about it. Just that one with the broken stick and it went off of Phil. That's about as unlucky as you can get. For sure, we need to have a better start and maybe it doesn't get to that point." Penguins goalie Matt Murray
The Canucks swept their two-game season series against the Penguins after losing their previous four games against Pittsburgh (0-4-0). … Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin did not play because of an upper-body injury sustained Saturday. He will be reevaluated on Thursday to determine his status for Friday against the Boston Bruins or Saturday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. … The Canucks (8-3-0) are tied with the St. Louis Blues (8-3-1) for most road wins in the NHL.

Penguins @ Boston Bruins 3-4 - Friday, November 24, 2017

David Pastrnak scored the go-ahead goal 5:06 into the third period, and the Boston Bruins extended their longest winning streak of the season to four games with a 4-3 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at TD Garden. Riley Nash sprung Pastrnak for a breakaway, and the right wing scored with a backhand-to-forehand move. David Krejci, Sean Kuraly and Matt Grzelcyk scored, and Anton Khudobin made 17 saves for the Bruins (10-7-4). The goalie is 7-0-2 this season. The Bruins had a 3-1 lead before the Penguins tied it 3-3 in the second period. Jake Guentzel, Phil Kessel and Sidney Crosby scored, and Matt Murray made 29 saves for the Penguins (11-10-3), who lost a third straight game and for the fifth time in seven games (2-4-1). The Penguins outshot the Bruins 8-5 in the third period.

Krejci scored his second goal of the season to put the Bruins ahead 1-0 at 6:13 of the first period. After Peter Cehlarik stole the puck from Guentzel, Jake DeBrusk found Krejci in front for the goal. Kuraly extended the lead to 2-0 at 10:51 with a one-timer from the top from the top of the right circle after a cross-ice pass from Charlie McAvoy, who stole an outlet pass and circled the net. Guentzel got the Penguins within one with a power-play goal at 1:02 of the second period before Grzelcyk scored his first NHL goal, beating Murray to the glove side at 10:31 to give the Bruins a 3-1 lead. Kessel scored on a wrist shot to the short side at 14:07 of the second period to make it 3-2. Pittsburgh tied the game 3-3 with 2:16 left in the second on Crosby's goal, which the Penguins captain scored by sweeping the puck off Khudobin's stomach when the goaltender was on his back. The play was reviewed twice, first to find out when the whistle blew. After it determined that the puck was entering the net as the whistle blew, the Bruins challenged the play for goaltender interference, but the goal was upheld after video review.

Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (upper body) didn't travel here and missed his second straight game. ... Crosby played his 806th NHL game, tying Jaromir Jagr for second place on the Penguins' all-time list. Patric Hornqvist played his 600th NHL game. ... Penguins forward Carter Rowney (hand) returned to the lineup after missing 14 games. ... Bruins forward Brad Marchand (undisclosed) missed his fifth straight game and is day to day. ... Grzelcyk became the seventh Bruins player to score his first NHL goal this season (DeBrusk, McAvoy, Kuraly, Cehlarik, Danton Heinen and Anders Bjork). ... Boston is 5-0-1 in its past six home games against Pittsburgh.

"Well, it's discouraging because it wasn't a perfect game by any stretch. I thought the third period was one of our stronger periods and we end up giving up a breakaway when we controlled most of the territory and most of the zone time. So from that standpoint, that was the only real quality scoring chance they got the whole period and it ended up in the back of our net. What happened in the first? We got outplayed. They played harder than we did."

Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said.

Tampa Bay Lightning @ Penguins 2-5 - Saturday, November 25, 2017

Sidney Crosby and Phil Kessel each scored twice to help the Pittsburgh Penguins defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 at PPG Paints Arena. Crosby, who has three goals in his past two games, scored on two different 5-on-3s, one in the first period and another in the third. Kessel scored once in the first period and again in the second. Kessel had four points (two goals, two assists), and has seven goals in his past nine games. Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry made 33 saves for his first NHL win. He is 1-1-2 in his career and 1-0-2 this season. Pittsburgh (12-10-3), which lost 4-3 to the Boston Bruins on Friday, won the second half of a back-to-back for the first time in seven attempts this season (1-4-2). It had been outscored 36-12 in the second halves of back-to-backs entering Saturday.

The Penguins ended their first three-game losing streak since Jan. 11-14. Tampa Bay (16-5-2) is 1-3-0 in its past four games.

Crosby's second goal of the night

TBL@PIT: Crosby wires in wrister for power-play goal

• 00:59 • November 26th, 2017

Two double minor high-sticking penalties led to three first-period goals for the Penguins. The flurry started when Jake Guentzel was called for high-sticking Ondrej Palat at 11:21 and Bryan Rust scored on a shorthanded breakaway to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead at 14:36. Cedric Paquette went off for high-sticking Crosby at 16:12 and Anton Stralman was called for tripping 1:31 later. The Penguins scored twice on the 5-on-3. After Kris Letang's stick broke on an attempted slap shot, Patric Hornqvist moved the puck to Crosby, who passed through the crease. Kessel one-timed a shot past Peter Budaj with nine seconds remaining in the first half of Paquette's double minor to make it 2-0 at 18:03. Crosby extended it to 3-0 by tipping a shot from Kessel inside the left post with 33.1 seconds left. He has at least one point in five of his past six games. Kessel scored again, this time with a wrist shot over Budaj's blocker during a breakaway, to make it 4-0 at 2:22 of the second period. Palat cut the lead to 4-1 with a power-play goal at 6:52. Crosby pushed it to 5-1 on a 5-on-3 4:41 into the third period before Cory Conacher cut it to 5-2 on his first goal of the season with 6:06 remaining.
Lightning forward Chris Kunitz returned to Pittsburgh for the first time since signing with Tampa Bay as an unrestricted free agent on July 1. He is one of five players to have won the Stanley Cup three times with the Penguins, along with Evgeni Malkin, Crosby, Letang and Vegas Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. … Crosby played his 807th game, passing Jaromir Jagr for second in Penguins history. Mario Lemieux is the all-time leader with 915.

 

"It's something you can only dream of. It's something you think of as a kid that you might not achieve. It's something that came true tonight." Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry on his first NHL win

"Obviously, it was a good night. We had a couple 5-on-3s out there, so it's nice. We needed that win tonight. … We need to find our footing here and get a couple wins going. Tonight was a good start." Kessel said.
"I think our players understand the circumstance. We all know where we are in the League and where we are in our division. All of us watch hockey so we know where we stand and I think our group has high expectations." Mike Sullivan

Philadelphia Flyers @ Penguins 4-5 OT - Monday, November 27, 2017

Sidney Crosby scored 1:48 into overtime to help the Penguins defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 at PPG Paints Arena. Crosby redirected a shot from Kris Letang past goalie Brian Elliott for his fourth goal in his past three games. He said it's a play he and Letang have practiced. Pittsburgh goalie Matt Murray left the game with a lower-body injury at 15:39 of the second period after Philadelphia forward Jakub Voracek crashed into him at the end of a breakaway. He was helped off the ice after remaining down in his crease for a few minutes. Coach Mike Sullivan said Murray will be re-evaluated Tuesday.

The Penguins (13-10-3) have won two straight games after losing their previous three. They are 8-2-1 at home this season despite losing two of their past four at PPG Paints Arena. Elliott made 47 saves for the Flyers (8-9-7), who have lost eight straight games (0-3-5). After Michael Raffl gave the Flyers a 4-3 lead with 3:41 remaining in the third period, Jake Guentzel scored his second goal of the game to tie it 4-4 with 1:04 left. With the Penguins trailing 3-1, Hornqvist and Bryan Rust scored 39 seconds apart in the third period to tie it 3-3. Hornqvist scored on a power play at 1:07 before Rust raced past Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, shot into Elliott, and tipped the rebound into the net at 1:46.

Philadelphia scored three goals in the second period to take a 3-1 lead after Guentzel put Pittsburgh ahead 1-0 with 3:57 remaining in the first period.
Gostisbehere tied it 1-1 on a 5-on-3 power play with a one-timer from the top of the left face-off circle at 3:40. Konecny gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead with 4:55 left in the period when he redirected a Brandon Manning slap shot past Murray, who made 20 saves on 22 shots. Tristan Jarry made eight saves on 10 shots in relief of Murray. Sean Couturier scored on the fourth shot Jarry faced to extend the Flyers lead to 3-1 with 31.5 seconds remaining. Jarry has stopped 41 of 45 shots in consecutive wins after beginning his NHL career 0-1-2. He made 33 saves in a 5-2 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday.
Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald returned after missing 15 games with a lower-body injury. … Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin missed a fourth consecutive game with an upper-body injury sustained against the Chicago Blackhawks on Nov. 18. He skated before Pittsburgh's morning skate.
"We believe he's a solid goalie. The game he played against Tampa is a perfect example of what he's capable of. That being said, if [Murray can't play], Tristan is going to have to make timely saves for us game in and game out. We believe he can do that." Sullivan said.
"Almost every day. We've played together for a long time. So, I mean, he works on getting shots through, and [Patric Hornqvist] is always working on tips and screening. I'm usually trying to hang around there and get some too. [Letang] made a great play. A great, heads-up play. They took the front of the net away and left me open on the side. … I had a thought he might come to me." Crosby said.
"I'm just trying to do my best out there every day. I want to get better and better. … I think [comfort] comes with being in there every day." Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry