The Penguins didn't plan to play such a boring first period Tuesday night.
They just wanted to be responsible.
Deliberate.
Accountable.
And they were.
But they were boring, too.
Much more than they intended to be, mostly because they weren't playing at the pace Mike Sullivan and his staff wanted.
"In the first period, I thought we slowed the game down a little bit with a lot of controlled regroups and things of that nature," Sullivan said. "And I don't think that's when our team is at its best."
He was correct.
The Penguins weren't at their best during those 20 minutes.
Or even particularly close to it.
Nonetheless, when the circumstances demanded it -- after they fell behind the Coyotes early in the third period -- the Penguins morphed into, well, the Penguins.
And they got a 6-3 victory over Arizona at PPG Paints Arena to show for it.
They ran off four unanswered goals in under nine minutes, taking their game to a place Arizona, which doesn't have much to look forward to for the rest of this season except a trade deadline fire sale, simply cannot reach.
Such is the difference between a team that's convinced it can contend for a Stanley Cup and one for which points have been harder to find than yacht races in the desert, whose next competition of consequence will come in the draft lottery.
"What I liked about our team tonight is, we just had a stick-to-itiveness all night long," Sullivan said. "There was no panic on the bench. We were just trying to play the game the right way. Take what the game gives us. We felt like if we just played hard and compete, take what the game gives us, that we were going to score goals."
Turned out to be a pretty good hunch.
The Coyotes, to their credit, actually took three one-goal leads, but each proved to be as enduring as a mirage.
The last of those, made possible on a superb individual effort by Nick Schmaltz at 2:54 of the third, held up for all of 119 seconds, until Brock McGinn slid a backhander past goalie Karel Vejmelka to make it 3-3.
And even though more than 15 minutes remained in regulation, the game was on the verge of being over, because Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Brian Boyle all would score before the Coyotes managed to record their next shot on Tristan Jarry.
"When (McGinn) scored, it gave the bench some juice," Sullivan said. "I thought that after (McGinn's) goal, we took it to another level."
One the Coyotes couldn't see without help from the Hubble telescope.
"In the third, we got some bounces, they took a few unnecessary chances and we capitalized on them," Bryan Rust said. "It was a good third."
Crosby's game-winner at 7:10 was set up by Rust, who gained possession of the puck at the left point in the defensive zone when Arizona defenseman Jakob Chychrun made an ill-advised pinch and got caught flat-footed.
Rust and Crosby exchanged passes while they made their way down the ice, until Rust fed a final one to Crosby in front of the Coyotes' net.
"I caught (Chychrun) in a bit of a bad spot," Rust said. "He wanted to pinch, but he was a little too far away (from the puck). ... I thought initially it was going to be a two-on-one for me and Jake (Guentzel), but one guy came back really hard and that made it a 3-on-2 because Sid was (joining the rush), too.
"I hit (Crosby) once, he gave it back to me and I just tried to find him again. He's a guy who, if you find him in between the hash marks and at the top of the crease, he's probably going to put the puck in the net."
That goal put the Penguins in front to stay, effectively negating any sluggishness they might have shown earlier in the game, although Evan Rodrigues contended that some people might have misconstrued what he regarded as a conscious decision to focus on getting back to stingy team defense.
"The first two periods were just kind of a defensive game," he said. "Maybe it wasn't our best, but I think we've had a lot of track meets the last handful of games. Today, we were a lot better defensively."
Rust, conversely, agreed with the premise that the Penguins have not performed to their potential for a while.
"Everybody involved, from the coaching staff on down, knows that it's not our best, and that it's not going to cut it down the line," he said. "But I think it shows something good for our group that we do find ways to win those games. We just can't get too big of a head about it."
What no one can dispute is that the Penguins have won six games in a row and 17 of their past 19 to climb within one point of the first-place Rangers in the Metropolitan Division.
Letang cited the team's depth and Jarry's stellar work as primary factors in their success during that run of nearly two months, but noted that there are others that have contributed.
"Every time somebody is hopping over the boards, we're playing with an edge," he said. "We know the system. We're playing the right way. It's easy. Shift after shift, the next group over the boards, you know (they are) going to do the right thing."
Even if they're not always doing it at full speed.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Rodrigues snapped an eight-game scoring drought with a pair of assists in the third period, and said that getting back on the scoresheet could help his confidence "maybe a little bit." He was quick to add, though, that "you just kind of stick with it, you know what was working" when points were not as hard hard to come by.
• Penguins alum Phil Kessel had an inconspicuous showing, recording just one shot on goal in 15 minutes, 59 seconds of playing time.
• Letang, on limiting the Coyotes to 16 shots despite the absence of Teddy Blueger, one of their best defensive forwards: "(Blueger) is just a great player. He has a great hockey IQ. He defends really well. He plays with an edge. He's tough to play against. So when you don't have a guy like this, it's always hard. But our goal, as a team, is to be a unit of five, all over the ice."
• In addition to scoring a goal and setting up two others, Crosby had a strong night on faceoffs, winning 14 of 22.
• Sullivan, on how the Penguins have picked up 34 of a possible 38 points in the past 19 games: "We have a competitive hockey team. I believe we have good players and great leadership. And I think the expectations inside of our dressing room are extremely high. So there's never a sense of satisfaction. There's always a hunger for more."
• The Penguins have won eight consecutive games at home, their longest such streak since running off 11 in a row in 2017-18.
• Letang, whose power-play goal was his first of that variety in 78 games, has four goals and 13 assists in the past dozen games, and continues to play some of the best two-way hockey of his career. He accounted for five of the Penguins' 36 shots on goal.
• Jarry stopped 13 of 16 shots en route to his 23rd victory, which ties Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy for the league lead.
Sidney Crosby collected the game-winning goal to cap off his three-point night and help the @penguins overcome three separate deficits to defeat Arizona.#NHLStats: https://t.co/HV9xcI1hd2 pic.twitter.com/WiPq0SjHD3
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 26, 2022
THE ESSENTIALS
THE THREE STARS
As selected at PPG Paints Arena:
1. Kris Letang, Penguins
2. Sidney Crosby, Penguins
3. Bryan Rust, Penguins
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Drew O'Connor is on the Long-Term Injured list, retroactive to Jan. 15, because of an unspecified upper-body injury.
• Teddy Blueger is expected to miss 6-to-8 weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured jaw suffered Jan. 23.
• Jason Zucker is listed as "week to week" after undergoing core-muscle surgery Tuesday.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan's lines and pairings:
Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen-Evgeni Malkin-Kasperi Kapanen
Brock McGinn-Jeff Carter-Evan Rodrigues
Zach Aston-Reese-Brian Boyle-Dominik Simon
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-John Marino
Mike Matheson-Chad Ruhwedel
And for Andre Tourigny's Coyotes:
Lawson Crouse-Johan Larsson-Phil Kessel
Clayton Keller-Travis Boyd-Nick Schmaltz
Andrew Ladd-Riley Nash-Christian Fischer
Liam O'Brien-Alex Galchenyuk-Loui Eriksson
Kyle Capobianco-Shayne Gostisbehere
Janis Moser-Anton Stralman
Jakob Chychrun-Ilya Lyubushkin
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins are scheduled to practice Wednesday at noon in Cranberry.
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.