A huge third period for the Penguins turned a 3-1 lead into a lopsided 7-2 victory over the hapless Minnesota Wild in Pittsburgh.
With several outside the Wild organization already calling for the firing of head coach Mike Yeo, Tuesday night’s result will put even more pressure on the former Penguins assistant.
“For whatever reason, we start to unravel,” said Yeo, but he refused to say that his team had quit. “If they quit, they wouldn’t be in their meeting right now,” he said. The Wild players had a long closed-door meeting after the game.
While the Wild may not have given up, they didn’t provide much resistance for the red-hot Penguins.
“When we were up 3-1, I think we felt pretty confident in our game, if we continued to play the way that we played (earlier) at the start of the third and then from there, we kind of took over,” said Penguins defenseman Paul Martin.
Marcel Goc got the scoring started at 6:16 of the first period. Zach Sill found his own rebound and passed it to Goc in the slot. It was Goc’s second goal of the season and was Sill’s first NHL point, coming in his 48th game, which is the third-longest pointless streak to start a career in league history. Craig Adams recorded the other assist.
“It feels good, a long time coming, so I was pretty happy to get it,” said Sill of his first point. “I felt like it was going to come and it was a matter of time. If you do the little things right and go to the net, it’s got to hit me and go in or something one of these days. I wasn’t stressing or anything, but it’s nice to get it.”
David Perron added to the Penguins lead at 12:04 of the first, again scoring on a loose puck in front of Backstrom. He picked up the rebound of a Christian Ehrhoff point shot and made a nifty move to stickhandle around the Wild goaltender and deposited it in the back of the net. Sidney Crosby got the play started with an offensive zone faceoff win and earned the second assist.
Early in the second period, Minnesota defenseman Ryan Suter elbowed Penguins winger Steve Downie square in the jaw in front of the Wild net. No penalty was called on the play. Downie had to be helped to the bench and did not return to the game. No update was available on his condition after the game. Suter called the hit accidental and apologized through Crosby between periods.
Moments later, the Wild finally got on the board on a Jonas Brodin wrister at 5:12 of the second period. Nate Prosser and Jason Pominville assisted. The goal was scored 6-on-5 as the Penguins were being called for a delayed penalty.
The game was only in doubt for a short time as Bryan Rust drew a boarding minor on Minnesota’s Erik Haula and Chris Kunitz capitalized right off the ensuing faceoff by diving across the crease to tap home the rebound of a Malkin shot. Kris Letang also assisted on the goal.
Brandon Sutter broke the game open with a wicked shot coming down the right wing that beat Minnesota goaltender Niklas Backstrom high to the blocker side. Martin earned the assist after blocking a shot in the defensive zone to spring Sutter.
Martin added a goal of his own four minutes later when his backhander deflected off the skate of a Wild player and tucked just inside the crossbar. Nick Spaling and Evgeni Malkin assisted on Martin’s goal.
Kris Letang chased Backstrom with a spectacular backhanded goal on a partial breakaway. David Perron’s pass at the blueline sent Letang in all alone. Backstrom took the loss while making 29 saves on 35 shots.
Justin Fontaine beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a wrist shot at 13:57 of the third period, but that was all the offense the Wild could muster.
Perron capped off the scoring with a one-timer that beat Wild backup John Curry to give the Pens their seventh goal. Kunitz made the pass and Crosby earned his third assist of the night.
Fleury made 30 saves for the Penguins, and by beating the Wild, he has now defeated each of the 29 teams he has faced in his career.
Update 11:59 p.m. — The NHL department of player safety has announced that Suter will face a supplemental discipline hearing for elbowing Downie. The hearing will be held over the phone on Wednesday.
Photo credit: NHL
