The Pittsburgh Penguins just keep on rolling during the stretch run of the season.
Even though goaltending has mostly been carrying them, their offense found a way to be the story on Saturday afternoon.
The Penguins beat the New Jersey Devils, 7-3, to earn their fourth straight win. And they got contributions from up and down their lineup - including from their newcomers.
Forward Connor Dewar registered two goals, and defenseman Conor Timmins notched two assists. Both were acquired on Mar. 7 from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Regardless of who is doing it and how they are doing it, the Penguins are winning games against some pretty good teams. And it's something they should feel pretty good about.
"It's just one game at a time," said goaltender Tristan Jarry, who put up his fourth straight win. "We can't get too far ahead ourselves. We just have to keep focus on the task at hand, but I think we've done a really good job just getting points and climbing. We just have to keep that mindset and keep going with it."
New Jersey opened the scoring midway through the first period, when former Penguin Cody Glass put one home from the right circle for his fourth point in four games since being traded from Pittsburgh to the Devils.
Dewar responded near the end of the third with a "garbage goal," and - 25 seconds later - Danton Heinen capitalized on a two-on-one chance with a beautiful forehand-to-backhand move, which came after a sneaky feed from Philip Tomasino.
The Penguins held the 2-1 lead into the second period, and they added on within the first five minutes of the middle frame. Rickard Rakell came in hard on the forecheck and managed to squeeze the puck from below the goal line out to Matt Grzelcyk. Grzelcyk fed it to Timmins, who fed it to Sidney Crosby, who found Rakell in just the right spot in the slot to register his 31st goal of the season.
After a disallowed shorthanded goal by the Devils during a four-minute kill in the second period, Tomasino worked hard to earn a goal of his own in the opening minutes of the third period, as he forced a turnover in front of Devils goaltender Jakob Markstrom and finished his own play to make it 4-1.
But, then, things got a bit dicey.
Pittsburgh took two consecutive double-minor penalties for high-sticking - the first by Noel Acciari, and the second by Evgeni Malkin - and New Jersey capitalized on both four-minute power play opportunities. Timo Meier got the first, and Nico Hischier got the second to make the score 4-3.
However, the Penguins responded with a power play goal of their own. Defenseman Erik Karlsson found the twine with an absolute rocket from the point to give the Penguins back a two-goal lead.
And from there, they pretty much shut it down. Dewar scored his second goal of the game on the empty net with 55 seconds left in regulation, and Kevin Hayes added an even-strength goal with 22 seconds left on the clock to score the "chili goal" and give the Penguins a 7-3 victory.
This was Pittsburgh's first win against the Devils this season and just their second win in the last 11 games against them.
"I give the players a lot of credit," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "I think 'Jars' played terrific. He was outstanding again tonight, and our power play gets us a huge goal late in the game to give us a little bit of a cushion.
"Guys are just competing. We're playing hard, I'm happy for the players. We've been able to string a couple in a row here together, and we're just going to take that game right in front of us and see where it takes us."
Here are just a few thoughts and observations from Saturday's win:
- Let's get the negative out of the way first. The Penguins' penalty kill is outright awful right now.
The unit surrendered another two power play goals against the Devils, which were both on third-period high-sticking double-minors. A unit that was top-12 for much of the season has free-fallen in the league standings.
The Penguins are now 19th in penalty kill percentage at 77.2 percent, and they have surrendered eight power play goals in their eight games in March - including four in the last two games.
"It's not always the cleanest game from an execution standpoint," Sullivan said. "I think we've got to do a better job staying out of the penalty box, and in some of those situations, there were a few penalties that I thought could've been avoided that would put us in a better position."
Simply put, the Penguins need to be more disciplined. Their PK unit isn't really doing much killing right now, so they're best-served to avoid it entirely for the time being.
- Speaking of which, there were three different double-minors for high-sticking in this game - two by the Penguins and one by the Devils.
Not something you see very often.
- The new guys are really playing well for the Penguins and have played pretty big roles, respectively, in their four-game win streak.
Dewar - who didn't have a goal on the season with the Toronto Maple Leafs before becoming a Penguin - has three goals in four games with Pittsburgh and is helping Blake Lizotte and Noel Acciari drive offense on the third line. Timmins had two points tonight and has been a steady presence on the blue line for Pittsburgh's bottom pairing.
"It's been great to come in and contribute right away," Dewar said. "It makes you feel a lot more comfortable, and it's nice helping out in getting these wins here."
Five games since the trade deadline, four wins. And the only loss was the first one on deadline day against the Vegas Golden Knights - which Dewar and Timmins were not available for.
- I've mentioned that Vladislav Kolyachonok's offensive instincts continually impress me. He did earn his first point as a Penguin on Heinen's goal.
Another player who has been very good in this last handful of games? Tomasino.
He has been impressive, really, since being slotted back on Evgeni Malkin's right side. The production won't pop out at you - he has three goals and seven points in his last 12 games - but he is driving offense on that line.
"He's a really talented player," Sullivan said. "He has real good offensive instincts. He has the ability to finish, he's got a deceptive shot, and I think he's a dangerous player off the rush. I think an example of that is the two-on-one goal he scored tonight."
He continued: "The area we're trying to help him grow is to develop a grind game. If you don't have the opportunity to generate offense off the rush, you have to find different ways to generate offense. Usually, when you play the better teams in the league, they take the rush game away."
Tomasino has earned the opportunity to stay on the second line for the remainder of the season, even if he still has to iron out some of the details of his "grind" game.
- The Penguins kept showing this young Penguins fan on the jumbotron. The first time, he was dancing, and the crowd went wild. Then, they showed him after Tomasino's goal, which garnered a huge cheer.
Then, they showed him again with a "Celebrity Alert" AI frame around his face. The crowd responded and went nuts yet again.
This wasn't a huge crowd, but it was a good, loud one. Awesome stuff by the Penguins' video staff to make this kid a star.
- After a New York Rangers win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, the Penguins are still six points out of a playoff spot, and every team ahead of them has games in hand. At one point Saturday, they were just four points out.
Don't get your hopes up. But, obviously, if the Penguins keep winning games - their next of which comes Tuesday against the New York Islanders and then Friday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, both teams ahead of them in the standings - I suppose we'll have to keep monitoring the mathematics.
Who would've thought, right?
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