Penguins/Blackhawks Recap: Big Braz’s big night helps Pens to win

Pregame

The Penguins come out of the break with some happy news to get Blake Lizotte back from the IR. Arturs Silovs is in net.

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First period

Quick start for the Pens to get on the board just 1:38 into the game. Anthony Mantha spins around and his off-speed five-hole shot just slips through the goalie for no reason. Not a great goal for Spencer Knight to allow, it wouldn’t be the last one like that for him on the night.

Bryan Rust gets in on the action a little later on. Really nice backhand pass from Sidney Crosby (that sentence has been uttered a time or two before) and Rust’s shot is…well, it’s a goal to the far side. Is Knight still on Christmas break?

Pittsburgh takes their dreaded 3-0 lead 1:01 later. Can’t blame Knight on this goal starting with a pass from Mantha behind the net that goes right through Matt Grzelcyk and is an easy one for Justin Brazeau to slam home from close range. Aaahh, a classic Grzelcyk disaster class!

Rust takes the game’s first penalty, the Penguins kill it off. Rust steps out of the box and ends Knight’s night early with another very weak shot to allow (although a nice, patient hold and pass from Ryan Shea on the setup). Pittsburgh’s fourth on the night on just seven shots. 4-0 game, just like that.

Kris Letang heads to the penalty box, Pittsburgh survives. Chicago isn’t invisible though, they try to break through but nothing is going their way in the first 20.

Late in the first, Noel Acciari and Connor Murphy get tied up in front of the net, exchange a few words and drop the gloves. A couple little shots but a quick affair that ends with Acciari wrestling the larger Murphy down to the ice.

Shots in the first are 10-7 Pens, a big outburst of four goals in the first 12:03 of the game leads to a lopsided 4-0 score.

Second period

It takes a while but Chicago gets on the board with 9:10 left. Nick Foligno is all alone in front of the net, he isn’t even facing the goal when he hacks in a rebound backwards and it gets by Silovs. 4-1 game.

After a terrible and completely dreadful early period power play, the Pens get another for a too many men call on Chicago and Pittsburgh opts to start out with their second group. It scores in eight seconds, Ben Kindel gives the puck down low to Brazeau and he power moves to the front of the net with his backhand shot just barely sliding into the back of the net. 5-1 game.

Less than a minute later, Brazeau completes his hat trick with a slight deflection of a Connor Dewar shot. Go crazy people! 6-1.

The game is going crazy, Chicago answers 13 seconds later, a bouncing puck jumps in off Silovs and in. 6-2.

Chicago nearly scores when Tyler Bertuzzi goal hangs for a breakaway, Silovs stops him. Down at the other end, Jack St. Ivany’s shot hits the end wall and pops out to Acciari in front. Acciari punches the puck in as Arvid Soderblom does his Spencer Knight impression and just kinda watches it happen. 7-2 game.

Wild one in Chi-town, the Pens wind up extending their lead in the second period by one and take a commanding five-goal lead after 40 minutes.

Third period

Knight back in the Chicago net for garbage time, why not!

Jack St. Ivany gets called for tripping, the Pens’ PK makes easy work of it.

Not much going on until Bertuzzi finally gets his goal with 0:00.8 left. Not as much consternation this time from the last time the Pens allowed a last second third period goal given the cushion.

Some thoughts

• The fickle fate of hockey in terms of sequencing: Chicago’s Ryan Greene hit a post early in the first period. If that goes in, the whole game might just have unfolded differently. Alas, it did not. The Blackhawks hit another post later in the period and couldn’t score courtesy of a Silovs save on a 3-on-1 rush.
• That little unknowable luck factor was smiling on the Pens all night long in ways that wouldn’t stand out just from reading the final score and surmising it was an easy or comfortable night. (Of course, if you know the Pens this season, you know that no lead is easy or comfortable). On one play in the second period the ref’s skate accidentally stopped a puck from getting to Andre Burakovsky in what would have been a rush chance for Chicago. Minutes later, a puck rolled off the stick of a Blackhawk and straight to Crosby for a breakaway. Sometimes it goes your way, some nights it doesn’t. The Pens certainly had a lot of those uncontrollable moments break in their direction in this game.
• That said, hey, a 5-goal third period lead seems to be the magic amount of cushion to coast a game home for the Pens.
• Looking just at the stat sheet a 21 save on 24 shot performance (.875%) doesn’t read that well for Silovs, but dear reader please believe he was pretty key for the win tonight. Moneypuck had Chicago with 3.5 expected goals, the one at the very end crushed Silovs but was one that he could more than afford to give up after the first 59:59 of steady play. There might not be that much reason for confidence or faith in him with the way the better part of the last two months have gone for him, don’t look now but it’s two wins in a row for Silovs.
• It was mentioned on the SN Pittsburgh broadcast that Knight, as Chicago’s starting goalie, has been in net for every first-half of the back-to-back’s this season. The Blackhawks played last night against mighty Dallas and opted based on strength of schedule to save their starter for the more winnable game on night two against the Pens tonight. For one reason or another, it backfired to where coach Jeff Blashill only played himself with that decision. Good in theory, didn’t work in execution, Knight gave up four goals on seven shots (and a total of 0.57 expected goals, per Moneypuck). It’s been a great season for Knight so far, tonight was one of those strange ones for him.
• The broadcast made a big deal about Crosby passing Gordie Howe for ninth place in most road points (777). At first that didn’t read right with Crosby sitting at 1,726 points now – meaning he has 172 more home points than road points. Would have guessed that was a closer split, are they counting games in Philly as home games?
• On a night Gordie Howe made the broadcast, shame that Acciari just missed an assist to honor Howe with his so-called hat trick (even though I think the legend said that Gordie Howe only actually ever had one career ‘Gordie Howe hat trick’ game). Wrap this into the Bob Grove stat of the night that the Pens will still be waiting for their first goal+assist+fight game since Evgeni Malkin did it in March 2017.
• Tonight was about seeing old combos coming through for the Pens. Crosby+Rust, Mantha+Brazeau, reunited Dewar-Lizotte-Acciari ‘best fourth line the team has had all season’. Also looked like an October version of Silovs to keep the puck out of the net. A lot of those elements have been strong when the team has had good stretches, after a down four weeks (or, well really maybe eight weeks..) it’s nice to see a lot of those familiar themes stepping back into the spotlight.
• Nice to be on the receiving end of a good ol’ dash 3 Matt Grzelcyk on the ice for a bunch of goals againstnight. Allan Walsh and agents skip the rest of this note: Grzelcyk’s continued NHL employment is a sign the league’s 32-franchise configuration is over-shadowing the talent pool as it is.
• Other end of that spectrum was Ryan Shea at a +5 through two periods in just 12:06 and a career-high three assist game. St. Ivany had a two-assist night — he only had two total assists in the first 37 games of his career entering tonight, a career assist and point total that St. Ivany nicely doubled up in an evening’s work.
• That Justin Brazeau, what can ya say!? Used a similar stat before in these recaps so excuse me to bring it up again: the Pens improve to 4-0-3 when Brazeau scores a goal. A couple of those OT losses (like the Utah and Anaheim blown leads) should not have been losses at all. Bottom line; it is (or at least it truly should be) a very, very good sign when Brazeau scores a goal. When he scores three goals? Forget about it. Well, that’s never happened before tonight, what a big time game.

First game back was a successful one to feel proud about. The Pens will need to carry those good feelings back for the next game on Tuesday night against a Carolina team that typically feeds Pittsburgh their lunch.