GLENDALE, Ariz. -- When the story of the 2017-18 Penguins is written -- be that in April or June, and either seems a distinct possibility -- there might be an entire chapter devoted to their 4-2 win here Saturday night.
That it came against the Coyotes, a team that has just seven wins, the fewest in the NHL, or that it was played in front of just 13,051 fans at Gila River Arena, or that the Penguins needed every bit of 59 minutes and 46 seconds to do it ... all of that's moot.
For a team that had lost three in a row and was on the precipice of falling into last place in the Metropolitan Division, a win is a win is a win.
And the Penguins did it the old-fashioned way: They earned it. They outshot Arizona, 33-17, they dominated the shot attempts, 74-33, and they absolutely dominated possession, holding a 67 percent to 33 advantage in Corsi, according to HockeyStats.ca.
But none of that would have mattered much until Olli Maatta's game-winner with 14.8 seconds remaining.
Resiliency. A sense of urgency. Dirty goals. All the needs that we've heard cited all through their three-game losing streak. The Penguins checked off all those boxes.
"It would have been frustrating to lose, given the way we played," said Sidney Crosby, who iced the game with an empty-netter with six seconds left. "That's the tough part about this league: You play well, it doesn't guarantee anything. We did some good things. We did some good things over the course of the last few games. It was good to be rewarded tonight."
1. That was poetic justice for Maatta.
The Finn has been the Penguins' best, most consistent defenseman this season. But he was nearly the goat on Saturday after this brutal turnover at 9:43 of the third period tied the game:
Clearly, this was not all on Maatta. He was practically set up for failure when Evgeni Malkin tried an ill-conceived pass back toward his own goal, which is never a good idea, from the corner.
In recent days, the Penguins might have folded. However, six minutes later, Maatta saved the day -- the first time -- on a mad net-front scramble:
Maatta used his body position to tie up Brad Richardson and cleared the puck from the goal line before Richardson put home what would have been the go-ahead goal.
That would belong to Maatta. With 14.8 seconds remaining he put the Penguins ahead for good on this slap shot which beat Antti Raanta, who had been almost impenetrable to that point:
To semi-borrow a Mike Tomlin-ism, it was hockey justice.
"I was happy for him," a relieved-sounding Mike Sullivan said. "It was, obviously, a tough play on the goal against, so I was thrilled for Olli that he had an opportunity to score there. It was a good shot."
"That's tough. I mean, it was 14 seconds," said Arizona coach Rick Tocchet, whose Coyotes dropped their sixth straight. "It's been a season like that and it's going to build character. We'll weed this out and these losses are going to build character."
For Maatta it was his third goal and 14th point, already eclipsing his totals from last season. After health and injury issues in recent years, Maatta is again starting to resemble the player who scored 29 points (nine goals) as a rookie. When he's on his game, as he is, he resembles Paul Martin in that he does nothing great but does everything very, very well.
"He's been great for us all year," Matt Murray said. "He's solid, he's scoring goals, he's doing everything. He's a special player. We're lucky to have him back there, for sure."
2. Strange game this hockey is.
The Penguins had four power-play opportunities in the first 30 minutes.
After a sluggish start in which they got just one shot on their first two chances while playing a perimeter game, they turned it up a notch or three on their final two. They had good entries. They had extended offensive zone time. They even had a few quality chances, but just couldn't get a puck past Raanta.
"It's a matter of the puck going in," Crosby said. "They blocked a few that, maybe we get those through, we give ourselves a better chance, but for the most part we had possession. It's just a matter of scoring."
With the Penguins having totaled two goals the previous two games, one might have had the sense they'd squandered their best opportunity to win.
So, naturally, Carter Rowney scored short-handed for the icebreaker at 14:38 of the second.
Rowney had the bar-down finish, but all the rest of the credit should go to Bryan Rust, who blocked a Max Domi shot to spring a two-on-one. After Oliver Ekman-Larsson faceplanted himself trying to play the pass (I think), Rust backhanded a pass to Rowney.
Rust started the game on the fourth line but finished on the top line. He's a Swiss Army knife capable of playing on any line, but he's at his best when using his speed to get separation, as evidenced by his uncanny ability to draw penalties.
Sullivan explained the line promotion by saying he sensed some urgency in Rust's play, a sign that the original move was intended to motivate. Hey, it worked.
"If you do end up with a decent block or you get some separation and get in a foot race, he's a guy who can win that foot race," Sullivan said.
And for the record, that's now eight straight games and 23 chances overall in which the Penguins' penalty-killers haven't allowed a power-play goal.
Also note that, at any strength, the Penguins had 13 blocked shots. They were selling out to win this one.
3. That's the Matt Murray we know.
Goalies are usually pretty fickle about the number of shots they want to face. You never want to face too many. But you also don't want to face too few.
The latter may have been the case Saturday, as Arizona had seven shots through 30 minutes, 17 for the game. Murray might have had a hard time staying awake:
Though he gave up two goals on those 17 shots, which will hurt the ol' GAA and save percentage, neither was his fault, and he was outstanding when he needed to be. That included a sharp pad stop on Derek Stepan on a two-on-one in the second.
This was Murray's third straight start after missing two weeks with a lower body injury. It also was his best.
"I thought Matt was strong," Sullivan said. "He didn't get a lot of shots, but he got a handful of quality ones. The two goals that were in, were tough ones, they're high-quality chances. But other than that, I thought he was real solid."
It was a vintage performance from Murray, who is so fundamentally sound he makes everything just look so routine when he's on his game. More important, it was his first win in 28 days and, the Penguins should hope, a sign of more to come.
4. You miss every shot you don't take.
Evgeni Malkin has scored many, many highlight reel goals over his Hall of Fame-worthy career. And, man, this wasn't one of them:
And know what? It was still beautiful and exactly what was required.
The Penguins have been talking about simplifying things and getting pucks to the net with traffic. Finally, they did so.
The above goal, Exhibit A, Malkin's 10th, followed a rush begun by Malkin in his own zone, furthered by a deft forward touch from Phil Kessel at the Arizona blue line to Conor Sheary to create an odd-man break with speed. Sheary worked the perfect P.O.P. -- pass off pads -- play, and Malkin roared through the crease for the rebound.
Maatta found beauty in all the ugliness:
As evidenced by those 74 attempts -- Kris Letang was credited with nine alone -- the Penguins were in a shoot-first mode. It has been a point of emphasis, according to Sullivan.
"A lot of nights we're looking for that next play and it never materializes," he said. "We don't get a puck to the net. We feed the transition game of our opponents. There are many different things that can happen. When we have that shooting mindset, then good things can happen. We'll get people to go there more because the puck is going there and we can create lots of opportunities that way."
5. Where was the pushback?
We saw a lot of disturbing things during the Penguins' three-game losing streak, many of which -- like Letang's turnovers and Crosby passing up a shot on his first shift -- reared their ugly heads yet again Saturday.
But we hadn't seen the Penguins get pushed around physically. Until the 4:29 mark of the first period, that is.
Chad Ruhwedel and Dominik Simon use their hands for more resourceful pursuits than fighting. Ruhwedel has one fight in his 93 career games and Simon is a recent call-up from Wilkes-Barre.
Still, this just can't happen:
Domi, who wasn't happy with Ruhwedel's hard -- but legal -- hit in the corner on Arizona's prized rookie, Clayton Keller, comes in to stick up for his teammate. (Why players feel the need to fight in these instances is a debate for another day.)
But Ruhwedel or Simon had to have some sort of pushback here. For both players, whose roster spots are tenuous, it was a missed opportunity to win some points.
UP NEXT
The Penguins are scheduled to have an off-ice workout Sunday in Denver. There will be no media access. They complete this three-game trip Monday night against the Avalanche at the Pepsi Center.