Penguins 'made a statement' with skid-snapping, decisive win over Avs

DENVER. -- This might just have been the Penguins' most impactful win of the year.

The Penguins came into this game here in Denver having fallen out of a playoff position, riding a four-game losing streak and missing four of their six regular NHL defensemen. All these depleted, slumping Penguins had to do to get back on track was to get a win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche, still very much contenders as the No. 2 team in the Central Division and riding a six-game winning streak.

A tall task, to say the least.

The Penguins didn't just eke out a narrow win over the Avalanche. This was a decisive 5-2 victory in which you couldn't have asked for much more -- contributions from some expected and some unexpected faces, a successful power play and a strong performance from Tristan Jarry in net. The win put the Penguins back into a second wild card spot in the standings with 80 points in 71 games, leapfrogging the Panthers' 79 points in just as many games.

"It's definitely big, we needed to come off of that skid," Drew O'Connor told me afterward. "We made a statement tonight with that. That was a great performance from us, and the great thing about it was that everyone was playing really well tonight. It's a good one for us."

The first period was as close to evenly-matched as things could get. The game was scoreless, shots were 11-9 Colorado and shot attempts were 22-20, also in Colorado's favor. The game being close seemed like a small victory in and of itself, given how challenging of a matchup this seemed on paper.

It was Sidney Crosby who finally cracked the game open with a classic, classic Crosby goal off of a backhand shot. Jake Guentzel doubled the Penguins lead less than three minutes later, batting down an Evgeni Malkin shot out of the air while on the power play and putting in his own rebound:

"Just trying to be in front of the net and create havoc," Guentzel said of his goal. "Geno found me alone there, it just went up in the air and I tried to get a stick on it. I guess playing baseball when you're younger helps."

Crosby didn't earn No. 1 star honors for his 30th goal of the season, and neither did Guentzel for his goal that required some serious hand-eye coordination. The No. 1 star in this game was deservedly Jeff Carter. Carter, who had two goals in his last 31 games, scored two goals in less than 19 minutes here in this one. The first came off of a power play, with Carter capitalizing off of a setup from Bryan Rust from behind the net:

The second was an even-strength goal, with Carter redirecting a shot from Brian Dumoulin:

"Nice to put them in," Carter said succinctly of his goals.

Heck, even Dumoulin -- the player who has received the most criticism after Carter this season -- had a pretty solid game, too. Aside from just that setup of Carter's goal, his pairing with Chad Ruhwedel had the best results of any of the Penguins' pairings tonight. When they were on the ice together the Penguins outshot opponents 11-7, outscored them 1-0, and they generated 59.7% of the expected goals.

Jarry had been pretty hit-or-miss since returning from injury a month ago. Coming into this game, he was 4-5-1 in those 12 appearances since returning with an .866 save percentage. He had been pulled in four of those games, but he had also had three games with over 30 saves. Wednesday's win was decidedly a "hit," with Jarry stopping 28 of 30 shots. Neither of the goals he let in were exactly "soft" -- the first from J.T. Compher came immediately after a Kris Letang turnover behind the net, and the second was a Devon Toews goal off of a weird play in which P.O Joseph and Rust collided in front of Jarry, and Toews had a pretty good fake like he was going to pass instead of shoot.

Not much more you could have asked for in this game. This was as close to a "complete" game from the Penguins as we've seen in some time, with a depleted defense corps and against one of the more difficult opponents in the league at that. 

"I just thought it was a solid effort, top to bottom, right through our lineup," Mike Sullivan said. "I thought guys competed hard. We were paying the price to win. I thought some of the shot blocks late in the game were an indication of the urgency, the compete that we had tonight against a really good hockey team. I thought Jars was terrific, he made some big saves at key times to help us maintain the lead. We got some big goals at key times from guys. But I just thought that top to bottom, throughout the lineup, guys competed hard. It was one of our better efforts as a group."

That stressing of the "top to bottom" contributions was repeated in the locker room.

"It's definitely a big one, for sure," Guentzel said. "Defending champs, coming into their building, you know how good they are. Top to bottom, we defended hard. That's what we have to do this time of year. Jars was unbelievable, that's just a good team win."

With the way the game came together, and the contributions the Penguins got throughout the lineup, was it the most satisfying win of the year?

"I don't really rank them at this point," Crosby said. "We're just trying to get points. A good effort all the way around -- special teams, Jars made some saves, timely goals. Hopefully we can build off this one."

MORE FROM THE GAME

• Beyond Carter's five-on-five goal, this was an exceptional game for the fourth line of Carter, O'Connor, and Josh Archibald. When they were on the ice the Penguins recorded 12 shot attempts and allowed eight, outshot opponents 6-3, and outscored them 1-0. O'Connor especially had a big game, with five shots on goal on eight shot attempts (three of which were high-danger), one drawn penalty and two blocked shots. When I went up to O'Connor in the locker room after the game, I just asked, "What got into you tonight?"

"I don't know," he said with a laugh. "I just got a couple of good looks, sometimes it sets the tone for the game if you get a couple of shots early on. I just felt good tonight."

The line seems to be coming together as of late, something the Penguins desperately need.

"Last game we had some good chances," O'Connor said. "I was saying to Carts on the bench, I had that same exact play last game that he had with Dumoulin. So it's nice that it went in this time. It was nice to see him get a couple tonight, I feel like we did some good things."

• Carter made it clear that he's not concerned about external criticism his play this season has received from media or fans. He's only concerned about the opinions of a certain few.

"I (couldn't) care less about what you guys write about me," he said with a big, toothless smile. "To be completely honest with you, you can do whatever you want. The only thing I care about is in here."

It was pretty clear how much it meant to Carter's teammates to see him score. Rust got some serious air jumping into Carter's arms after the first goal, and the reaction on the bench after both goals was a bit more lively than usual. Letang, the keeper of the team's MVP helmet coming into this game, chose Carter as its next recipient:

"I'm thrilled for him, we're all thrilled for him," Sullivan said of Carter. "This guy, he's a good hockey player and an even better person. He cares about the Penguins, he wants to win. He wants to contribute to helping us win. So we couldn't be happier for him."

• Carter's first goal stood to be the game-winner, his 88th game-winner of his career. The only active player in the league with more is Alex Ovechkin, at 124.

• A necessary note for context: I've already seen several, "Oh, of course Carter finally talks to reporters after he actually scores!" comments from some fans. Reality is he didn't want to talk tonight either. He was obligated to go on the TNT postgame first, then tried sneaking through the locker room undetected while Guentzel had the attention of most reporters. He was just about out the door before I ran up to him and asked him to talk, and even then he paused and made a face like he wanted to say no. The guy just doesn't like to talk. Still, there have been a couple of losses this season where he has been available. One of the worst losses this season was that 5-1 loss in December on Long Island, and he stepped up then and spoke without any hesitation or objections. He just doesn't talk often, and there's no rhyme or reason to when he does.

• Rust sealed the win with an empty-netter:

• As someone who has watched a lot of Taylor Fedun in Wilkes-Barre over the past two years ... I'm very surprised at how well he's done over these last two games. He's often noticeable in a good way, somehow even more so than he was in Wilkes-Barre, and the numbers reflect that. Through these last two games combined, when Fedun is on the ice the Penguins control 56.14% of the shot attempts, 61.54% of the unblocked shot attempts, 76% of the shots on goal, 53.85% of the high-danger chances and 58.93% of the expected goals. They've been outscored 1-0. It's quite the turn of events, given the fact that if Ty Smith (fractured jaw, week-to-week) or Xavier Ouellet (season-ending ankle injury in December) were healthy, they likely would have been above Fedun in the picking order.

Fedun and Friedman had played together a handful of games in Wilkes-Barre before becoming a pairing at this level. A guy who is more of an offensive defenseman like Friedman loves to be paired with a more reliable, steady presence in Fedun, as Friedman told me after practice Tuesday.

"He's a pretty defensive guy, he allows me to get up and down the ice," Friedman said. "I know that he's always going to be back there, it's a nice trust factor to have. The games we played together in Wilkes, it's been great. He's a smart defenseman, he's played a number of games in the NHL for a reason."

• Jarry took two shots at the empty net late in the game, both went wide. Asked if he thought either shot was on its way into the net, he had a simple, "No."

I asked Jarry if certain situations have to be present for him in a game to take that shot (i.e., if the Penguins were only up by one goal as opposed to two, would he risk the icing?), and he said "No, it's just the way it comes at me."

A little fun fact: Before Jarry scored in Wilkes-Barre in November 2018, he had his first solid attempt that went wide two weeks before, an attempt that was in part thwarted by Dustin Tokarski only halfway off the ice and throwing his stick in the direction of the puck. 

• Ryan Poehling, playing third-line center, came into this game with a 42.91% success rate in faceoffs on the season. Tonight? He went 14-5, a 73.68% success rate.

• A bit of a scary moment in the first period when Jason Zucker dropped to block a shot and it caught him in the tip of the right toe. He immediately hopped his way over to the bench and limped down the tunnel, and apparently just needed to walk it off. He didn't miss a shift. He didn't block any more shots in the game, but there were a couple of moments where he dropped to try to block one. The guy is a warrior.

• Guentzel took a shot to the foot just after Zucker did and went to the bench, and was clearly in some pain but didn't miss a shift either. He had his right ankle wrapped up in ice after the game.

• Emergency backup goaltender Mike Chiasson is on this trip, only his second trip of the year after the Winter Classic. The home team always supplies the EBUG, but teams are free to bring their own too if they want -- he just can't be someone with any professional experience. The reason you rarely see EBUGs travel is because they're rarely needed anyway, and since they aren't paid by the team they have day jobs that don't typically let them travel. Chiasson works as a goaltending coach at the Lemieux Complex, so he has some flexibility. He was in the press box during the game, I ran into him during warmups and we talked for a moment, he just seemed to be having a ton of fun getting to be on the road with the team. 

• Players had to walk past an area where fans were to get to the bus. I didn't see everyone who walked through there, and the couple players I saw didn't stop for fans. Alex Nylander, a healthy scratch, did stop and sign autographs for a bunch of fans.

• No Evan Rodrigues for Colorado tonight, he's in concussion protocol. I ran into him before the game and he had his usual gigantic smile and had a "Hey, how are you doing?!" Always so polite.

• Mario Lemieux's fantasy camp in which donors to his charity play alongside former NHL players wrapped up Wednesday at PPG Paints Arena. Colby Armstrong and Mark Recchi captained their team to victory:

• Good press box snacks here. Two flavors of those super-soft "Grandma's Cookies" brand cookies, Chex Mix, several kinds of chips, granola bars, pretty good tea selection. The media meal was also free (a rarity in the NHL) and had this chocolate cake. Solid A-. Points deducted for no candy, I was in the mood for gummy bears.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at Ball Arena:

1. Jeff Carter, Penguins C
2. Jake Guentzel, Penguins LW
3. J.T. Compher, Avalanche C

THE INJURIES

• Defenseman Jeff Petry suffered an upper-body injury on March 16 in New York. He has resumed skating on his own.

• Defenseman Jan Rutta is sidelined with a lower-body injury and is week-to-week. It seems like it was from the puck to the knee he took on March 14. He played on March 16 then was sidelined after that. He hasn't skated yet. 

• Defenseman Marcus Pettersson suffered a lower-body injury on March 18 and is week-to-week. He hasn't resumed skating. He's on long-term injured reserve. 

• Defenseman Dmitry Kulikov suffered a lower-body injury on March 12 and is week-to-week. He's on long-term injured reserve.

• Forward Nick Bonino suffered a lacerated kidney on March 9 and is week-to-week. He's on long-term injured reserve

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Danton Heinen - Ryan Pohling - Mikael Granlund
Drew O'Connor - Jeff Carter - Josh Archibald

P.O Joseph - Kris Letang
Brian Dumoulin - Chad Ruhwedel
Mark Friedman - Taylor Fedun

And for Jared Bednar's Avalanche:

Denis Malgin - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen
Alex Newhook - J.T. Compher - Valeri Nichushkin
Andrew Cogliano - Lars Eller - Logan O'Connor
Matt Nieto - Darren Helm - Alex Galchenyuk

Samuel Girard - Devon Toews
Jack Johnson - Bowen Byram
Kurti MacDermid - Brad Hunt

THE SCHEDULE

The road trip concludes with a game Thursday in Dallas at 9 p.m. Eastern. There won't be a morning skate because of the back-to-back starts. I'll have your coverage.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE CONTENT

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