DETROIT -- This was not Rickard Rakell's first goal of the season. Fact is, he had scored 19 others.
Wasn't his first game-winner in 2021-22, either. Rakell had gotten one of those for the Ducks before Anaheim traded him to the Penguins.
It might, however, be a while before Rakell gets a goal that is more significant than the one he scored during the Penguins' 7-2 victory against the Red Wings Saturday at Little Caesars Arena.
Or, for that matter, a prettier one.
With the game tied, 2-2, a little more than 7 1/2 minutes into the second period -- much of which the Penguins had spent revealing some old flaws in their game, and perhaps creating a few new ones -- Rakell pulled in a long feed from Mike Matheson, who was inside the Penguins' blue line.
Rakell then cruised down the left side and, as he moved through the circle, Detroit defenseman Jordan Oesterle slid to break up any pass Rakell might have been considering.
Rakell, unfazed, simply pulled the puck onto his backhand to protect it as Oesterle approached then, as he neared the goal line, cut to the net and flipped a forehand shot that hit goalie Thomas Greiss' left arm before settling into the net behind him.
That goal didn't just put the Penguins, who'd squandered a 2-0 lead, back in front; it proved to be the pivotal point of the game.
It lifted the Penguins out of the near-stupor that apparently had settled on them during the first intermission -- they actually had been quite diligent and efficient in the opening period, when goals by Chad Ruhwedel and Sidney Crosby had staked them to a two-goal advantage -- and triggered a run of five unanswered goals that bloated the Penguins' margin of victory.
"We just went back to work (after Rakell's goal)," Mike Sullivan said. "Just kept playing. ... When you can respond and score a goal, that settles things down."
That's not all that made Rakell's goal so important, though.
What mattered even more was that, by launching the Penguins toward a victory in regulation, it helped to preserve their edge against Washington in the Regulation/Overtime Wins tiebreaker.
The Capitals, who trail the third-place Penguins by two points in the Metropolitan Division, have a game in hand, but cannot overtake the Penguins if the Penguins win their remaining three games in regulation.
Now, the Penguins are going to face a quality opponent in Round 1 of the playoffs -- the possibilities are the Rangers, Hurricanes and Panthers -- but ending up third in their division would, in theory, make their opening-round task a bit less daunting.
It's also worth pointing out that, while Rakell's goal put the Penguins in front to stay, it held up as the game-winner only because of some excellent work by Casey DeSmith, who stopped 23 of 25 shots.
One of his best saves came with about nine minutes to go in the second -- a little more than a minute after Rakell scored -- when DeSmith denied Detroit center Joe Veleno from the inner edge of the left circle during a 2-on-1 break.
"He made a real good save that kept it at 3-2," Sullivan said. "That's what you need from your goaltenders. When you get a timely save like that, it just helps you maintain momentum. It helps you win games, quite honestly."
Indeed, about 2 1/2 minutes later, Kris Letang made it 4-2 by sticking a shot under the crossbar on the far side from low in the left circle, and that deflated the Red Wings to the point that they never seriously threatened to get back into the game.
"The second half of the game, we were better than the first half of the game," Sullivan said.
The storyline might have been radically different, though, if Veleno had gotten the puck past DeSmith.
Or if Rakell hadn't put one behind Greiss.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Evgeni Malkin, in his first game back after serving a four-game suspension, had two goals -- one on the power play, one with 26 seconds to go in regulation -- and a game-high six shots in 16 minutes, 22 seconds of ice time. "I thought he was solid," Sullivan said.
• The Penguins' four-day break between games against the Bruins in the past week came up again in postgame interviews. "It's huge," Danton Heinen said. "Every team goes through it, the wear-and-tear of the season. To have those few days .. to just take a step away and come back energized, I think it was a good time for us."
• Crosby's goal, which came off a deft setup by Rakell, was his 30th of the season, marking the 10th time he has reached that milestone. Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr are the only other players in franchise history to do it that many times.
• The best and worst of Letang were on display at various points in this game. Michael Rasmussen, for example, scored Detroit's second goal on a 2-on-1 break that resulted from an ill-conceived pinch by Letang along the right-wing boards early in the second period -- "We weren't locked into the details on that one," Sullivan said -- but he also finished with a goal and two assists. "He drives so much of our offense, in so many different ways," Sullivan said. "He's having a real good year for us, on both sides of the puck."
• Ruhwedel opened the scoring when he moved in from the right point and converted a feed from Teddy Blueger, who was along the goal line to the left of the Detroit net. "He made a great pass to me," Ruhwedel said. "I didn't have to do much." The goal was his fourth, double his previous career-high. "I would just attribute (the increase) to playing more, more often," Ruhwedel said. "The offensive side just starts to happen. You get more opportunities that way."
• The Penguins have 23 road victories, one shy of the franchise record set in 1992-93 and matched in 2010-11.
• Malkin's power-play goal came on the Penguins' only man-advantage of the game and was just their second power-play goal in 22 tries over the past 10 games. It was awarded after a video review initiated by the officials determined that Malkin, who was at the right side of the crease, was in the act of shooting before a whistle was blown to stop play after Greiss had stopped a Jake Guentzel shot.
• Heinen's goal at 5:38 of the third period was his fourth in the past five games, as he has continued to provide some of the complementary scoring the Penguins so clearly need. "It's always nice, seeing them go in," Heinen said. "This is the time of year when you want to have some confidence."
• It was a good game on faceoffs for the Penguins, who were led by Jeff Carter going 10-2. The Penguins had six guys handle draws, and no one lost more than he won.
• Greiss, a former Penguins goalie, was pulled after allowing five goals on 23 shots during the first two periods.
• Hall of Fame defenseman Larry Murphy, who works on Red Wings TV telecasts, had a pregame reunion with Penguins broadcasters Phil Bourque and Bob Errey, who were his teammates on the Penguins' Stanley Cup-winning teams in 1991 and 1992.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
THE THREE STARS
As selected at Little Caesars Arena:
1. Kris Letang, Penguins D
2. Sidney Crosby, Penguins C
3. Rickard Rakell, Penguins RW
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Tristan Jarry, goalie, has a broken bone in his foot and is listed as week-to-week.
• Nathan Beaulieu, defenseman, is on the Long-Term Injured list because of an unspecified lower-body injury, but has resumed practicing.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
Guentzel-Crosby-Rakell
Zucker-Malkin-Rust
Heinen-Carter-Kapanen
McGinn-Blueger-Kapanen
Dumoulin-Letang
Matheson-Ruhwedel
Pettersson-Marino
And for Jeff Blashill's Red Wings:
Bertuzzi-Veleno-Raymond
Vrana-Suter-Gagner
Erne-Rasmussen-Sundqvist
Hirose-Stephens-Barber
DeKeyser-Seider
Staal-Hronek
Walman-Oesterle
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will visit Philadelphia Sunday at 4:08 p.m. in their final road game of the regular season.
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.
