Penguins finally solve Hurricanes with, of all things, suffocating defense

Meetings between the Penguins and Hurricanes have been close in recent years.

They've met nine times in the past three seasons. Each meeting was decided by a goal, with the exception of two games that also included empty-netters. The Penguins were losers of the most recent five meetings entering Thursday -- two regulation and two overtime losses last season, and a 4-2 loss in Raleigh, N.C., on Nov. 18 of this season. 

"Seems like every game is right down to the wire every time," Sidney Crosby observed Thursday. "Just the way the matchup works out."

The Penguins came out on the right side of things Thursday at PPG Paints Arena, and found what it takes to solve the Hurricanes in a 2-1 shootout win.

The game still had a lot of the characteristics of some of those past losses. The power play had an off night as it often does against the Hurricanes, going 0 for 5 and never really finding a rhythm. The Hurricanes' lone goal was an opportunistic one off a lucky bounce like we've seen in the past, with Teuvo Teravainen's shot hitting Alex Nedeljkovic's pads, then quickly pinballing off the skate of Kris Letang and into the net. 

Crosby was characteristically Crosby. In those last five losses to the Hurricanes, he still showed up with four goals and an assist. He kept up that pace tonight, opening the scoring with the Penguins' only goal. It was a quick deflection off a great setup from Rickard Rakell in the slot:

It was what the Penguins did defensively that was the difference-maker in this game. They limited the Hurricanes to 24 shots, their fourth-fewest shots they've allowed in their 31 games this season. They allowed only 29 unblocked shot attempts against at five-on-five, tied for their fourth-fewest unblocked shot attempts allowed at five-on-five in a game this season.

The chances the Penguins did allow weren't quality looks for the most part, either. Of the 24 shots on goal the Hurricanes got, only three were high-danger shots. The Hurricanes only recorded three attempts off rushes -- two at five-on-five and one shorthanded.

Tightening things up defensively has been a message Mike Sullivan has been stressing for awhile, especially with the defensemen. He often says he wants his defensemen to "take what the game gives them" -- be active offensively, but join the rush, don't lead it. That's the way the Penguins played against the Hurricanes.

"We didn't give up any sort of dangerous odd-man rushes, two on ones, things of that nature," Sullivan said. "I thought we had numbers back for a lot of the night ... We were somewhat patient with our puck possession and just willing to play a north-south game. That's an important aspect of playing against a team like Carolina that defends the way they do."

And with the exception of one bad bounce off another bad bounce that led to Carolina's only goal, Nedeljkovic was perfect in net. That was a big part of the Penguins' strong defense in this game.

"I thought Ned did a good job just fighting through the traffic and finding the puck," Sullivan said. "He made some clean saves. When you can swallow those pucks and it's a whistle, I think it settles it down. You don't have to defend that next play if you don't spit the rebound out. That next play a lot of times, they're the hardest ones to defend."

The defense didn't come at the expense of offense. They had 25 shots on goal, not counting the handful of posts they hit throughout the night. Their scoring chances were the better quality scoring chances too -- they led 2.73-2 in expected goals in all situations.

"We still generated chances," Crosby said. "It wasn't like we were sitting back. I thought that there were a few shifts where we got hemmed in a bit and we had to kind of grind it out. Besides that, I thought we made some really good plays and generated some good chances playing a game that didn't give up a lot."

That strong defense held them in the game through regulation, and then through overtime. The Penguins recorded three shots on goal in the five-minute extra frame and held the Hurricanes to none, setting the stage for Crosby (who else?) to score the lone goal of the ensuing shootout:

If the Penguins are going to make up ground and make it into a playoff spot, they need games like these against divisional opponents. It's a tight race in the Metropolitan Division. The Rangers have a clear hold on the No. 1 spot with 45 points, but only six points separate the Flyers at No. 2 and the Penguins at No. 7 in the division, and only five points separate the Penguins from the Hurricanes in the last wild card spot. If the Penguins are going to make a run in the playoffs, they'll again need to go through some of those divisional opponents that have given them trouble in the past if they're going to advance. 

This game showed that the Penguins are capable of playing the way it takes to beat a team like the Hurricanes.

"Divisional games are big," Crosby said. "A team like that, this year and last year, looking at all the games, they all look very similar to that. We didn't find a way to win them. So to get over the hump and get on the winning side is big. Hopefully that'll boost our confidence in a tight game like that. We're going to see a lot of those. We've got to get a comfort level on playing that kind of game."

This was certainly a good start.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE THREE STARS

As selected at PPG Paints Arena:

1. Sidney Crosby, Penguins C
2. Alex Nedeljkovic, Penguins G
3. Pyotr Kochetkov, Hurricanes G

THE IN-GAME INJURIES

• Penguins: None

• Hurricanes: None

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel - Sidney Crosby - Rickard Rakell
Reilly Smith - Evgeni Malkin - Valtteri Puustinen
Radim Zohorna - Lars Eller - Drew O'Connor
Jansen Harkins - Noel Acciari - Jeff Carter

Marcus Pettersson - Kris Letang
Ryan Graves - Erik Karlsson
John Ludvig - Chad Ruhwedel

And for Rod Brind'Amour's Hurricanes:

Stefan Noesen - Sebastian Aho - Seth Jarvis
Michael Bunting - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Martin Necas
Andrei Svechnikov - Jack Drury - Teuvo Teravainen
Jordan Martinook - Jordan Staal - Jesper Fast

Jaccob Slavin - Brent Burns
Brady Skjei - Brett Pesce
Dmitry Orlov - Jalen Chatfield

THE SCHEDULE

The Penguins practice Friday, 12 p.m., in Cranberry before flying to Ottawa. They'll play the Senators there Saturday in the last game before the holiday break. I've got the trip.

THE MULTIMEDIA

THE FEED

Bookmark our Penguins Feed for much more on this game and all the latest on the team around the clock.