Penguins/Kings Recap: Rakell’s OT winner completes comeback for Pittsburgh

The Pens find a third period goal and then another in overtime to defeat the Los Angeles Kings by a 3-2 marker

Pregame

Alex Nedeljkovic gets the net for his first game since December 6th. Ryan Shea is in the lineup to replace the injured Marcus Pettersson.

First period

Pittsburgh’s early goal woes continue, this time it’s Adrian Kempe scoring on the first shot of the game. Nice feed from Anze Kopitar from behind the net, the rookie Owen Pickering went to chase and freed up Kempe in front. 1-0 LA just 33 seconds into the game.

The Pens play with fire, Rickard Rakell doesn’t do much but is rung up for an interference penalty. The LA power play looks a lot better than their 28th overall ranking snapping the puck around but they can’t score.

Soon after, Pittsburgh gets a makeup call for their first power play of the game, not much happening with it.

Cody Glass is the next to go to the box for a minor penalty, but Pittsburgh’s PK does the job.

Shots 10-10 through one, omit that first minute and it was a pretty good opener overall. Pens down a goal.

Second period

The Kings take a penalty early, the Penguin power play doesn’t do a lot with it but grow their momentum somehow. Back at even, Bryan Rust plays the puck up to Michael Bunting for a 2-on-1 with Evgeni Malkin bee-lining for the net. Bunting makes some kind of odd bad pass-kinda shot maneuver that hits the post, bounces off the back of Darcy Kuemper’s leg and goes in. They give the goal to Malkin, who presumably touched it at some point, sure why not. 1-1 game.

The Kings answer back, Pickering makes a false lunge up to wave at a puck. He doesn’t get to it and Alex Turcotte gets behind him. No one is catching up to him, he bursts down the ice and wires a shot past the ear of Nedeljkovic. 2-1 LA.

The Kings nearly make it 3-1 with Nedeljkovic swimming in his crease as a puck goes completely through it twice. Luckily it was not on an angle to go into the goal somehow and Pittsburgh recovered.

Shots in the second are 12-10 Pens, each team scores once in the middle frame and the Kings keep their one goal lead.

Third period

The Pittsburgh first line takes over in the third period. On separate shifts, Crosby sets up Rickard Rakell but his shot slams into the post. Then Crosby gets a look from right in front but Kuemper puts the blocker to the ground and stops it. Finally Crosby fights through traffic and then sets up Rust from right in front but Kuemper denies the high shot.

Just as it looks like Kuemper might stymie them all the way to the bank, Crosby finally gets rewarded with a point for all his hard work. An unreal pass from off the wall is perfect for Matt Grzelcyk. With plenty of space, Grzelcyk picks his spot and shoots past Kuemper. The Pens tie it up.

Malkin gets in on the action with a vintage rush to play the puck up in the air as he zooms past a defender, he has to be hauled down and the Pens earn a late power play. It doesn’t go well, Karlsson bumbles on a puck and has to take down a King in transition to end the power play.

No one scores so the game requires extra time.

Overtime

Cody Glass is out there for the opening faceoff against Kopitar and wins it! The Pens hold puck first 45 seconds but lose it and give up a breakaway.

Luckily it’s to defensive defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and his shot sails high.

Pittsburgh recovers and settles down, and as it sometimes tends to be the first OT shot on goal proves to be the winner. That honor goes to Rakell with his 14th goal of the season on a great deflection from a Karlsson offering that jumps into the net and gives the Pens a 3-2 win.

Some thoughts

• It’s tough to get a lot going against the Kings. Out of the first 10 shots the Pens had, six were from defenders. Usually going to be good odds for a goalie with what tends to be longer range shots.
• A game like this shows what happens when a team is forced to put a 20-year old kid with 11 NHL games under his belt. Pickering made plays on both of the first two LAK goals that a vet wouldn’t have. Not necessarily playing poorly or making massive mistakes, but such are the lessons to be learned in the NHL. It never fails how quickly an opposing team can teach those tough calls.
• Still ended up being another career-high in ice time for Pickering (20:25, narrowly edging last game’s 20:21), and he settled in after the choppy first period. There’s no other choice with the Pettersson injury to throw the rookie into the deep end and see how well he can swim.
• If you’re a betting person, a goal in the first 9:59 of the Penguin games has to be paying in spades these days. For whatever reason they are absolutely allergic to conceding goals on the first few shots an opponent has.
• Glass is becoming a player the Pens are leaning on in key situations. He played 0:43 of the last 1:20 of the game one two separate shifts in 4v4 and 4v5 roles, then took the all-important OT opening faceoff. He didn’t play a lot (13:11) in the game overall, but won 5/6 faceoffs and was a subtle but important figure down the stretch.
• Crosby easily could have had four points in the third period alone. He settled for one thanks to some quality goaltending by Kuemper. That line was piling up the chances and finally cashed one in to tie the game before they ran out of clock to get there. It ended up being 6 SOG (and 12 attempts) and about equally as many quality chance assists for Crosby who isn’t piling up the points right now but isn’t playing poorly by any means.
• Pens are back to .500 in points percentage (14-14-5) for the first time since Oct. 18, per Bob Grove. It’s been a long, slow climb back with a 7-2-1 run in the last 10 helping the cause.

Quality win for Pittsburgh, but now they head back to the road for the next two games starting on Thursday in Nashville.