Empty Thoughts: Penguins 3, Stars 0

Observations from the Penguins’ 3-0 win against the Dallas Stars.

DALLAS — Bryan Rust and Dominik Kahun are two different personalities.

Rust is as driven of a individual as you’ll find in a sport full of driven people. After today’s morning skate, he looked like he would have run through a wall just to get on the team’s bus back to the hotel. He was focused intensely all day Saturday, even on that mundane task.

Kahun? He almost seems like he’s just happy to be here, in the NHL. That’s not to say he doesn’t take his vocation seriously. It’s hard to believe an undrafted player who has reached the NHL would ever be guilty of that, but Kahun has a carefree come-as-you-are way about him.

They’re two very different people who had not scored in any of the Penguins’ first 11 games.

Granted, Rust couldn’t score because he had a bad hand which kept him out of the team’s first 11 games. Kahun’s futility was mostly related to bad luck.

Yet, they were the catalysts for an offensive surge in the third period which allowed the Penguins to snap their three-game losing streak.

“Finally,” Kahun remarked with a smile.

“The team has obviously been coming together here over the past few weeks,’ Rust said. “I was just hoping to kind of jump back in seamlessly. I like to think I help contribute a little bit to the win.”

What happened

Following a scoreless first two periods, which the Stars predominantly controlled, the Penguins struck first. After Stars goaltender Ben Bishop fumbled a puck exchange behind his own net, a forechecking Kahun stole it and fed a pass to rookie forward Sam Lafferty in the slot. Hurrying a shot on net, Lafferty shuffled a wrister into a scrambling Bishop who tried to fall backward and plop his 6-foot-7, 210-pound frame on the puck in hopes of freezing it.

The puck came loose in the crease, however, and Kahun, positioned to the right of the cage, jabbed it into the net with a forehand shot at 7:29 of the third period. Lafferty had the lone assist.

They made it a 2-0 game at the 9:07 mark. Off a faceoff win in the right circle by Penguins forward Nick Bjugstad, forward Patric Hornqvist fed a pass to the right point where rookie defenseman John Marino chopped a slapper which was blocked by Stars forward Justin Dowling. The rebound deflected to the right of the net where Rust collected the puck, swung around the net and swept a forehand shot into the crease where it bounced off the right skate of Stars defenseman John Klingberg and into the cage. Assists went to Marino and Hornqvist.

An empty-net goal by forward Brandon Tanev at 18:46 of the third secured the victory. Forwards Jake Guentzel and Teddy Blueger netted assists.

Statistically speaking

• The Penguins had a 27-25 edge in shots.

• The Stars led in shots, 22 to 11. In the third, it was all Penguins, 16-3.

• Bjugstad led the game with five shots.

• Forward Denis Gurianov led the Stars with four shots.

• Klingberg led the game with 28:18 of ice time on 30 shifts.

• Defenseman Kris Letang led the Penguins with 25:18 of ice time on 30 shifts.

• The Stars led in faceoffs, 35-28 (56 percent).

• Stars forward Tyler Seguin was 13 for 23 (57 percent).

• Blueger was 9 for 18 (50 percent).

• Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson led the game with five blocked shots.

• Defensemen Miro Heiskanen, forwards Jason Dickinson, Mattias Janmark, Corey Perry, Alexander Radulov, Seguin and Dowling each led the Stars with two blocked shots.

Historically speaking

• It had been a looooonggg time since the Penguins shut out the Dallas Stars. Like … Jean-Sebastien Aubin long. The former Penguins goaltender made 45 saves in a 4-0 home win on March 9, 2004. Goals were scored by forwards Jon Sim, Matt Bradley, Aleksey Morozov and Mike Eastwood.

• Kahun became the 526th different player to score a regular season goal for the Penguins.

• Guentzel (169 points) surpassed forward Tyler Kennedy and defenseman Moe Mantha (168) for 48th place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• Rust (115 points) surpassed forwards Pete Mahovlich and Terry Ruskowski (114 each) for 75th place on the franchise’s career scoring list.

• Marino’s assist was his first career point.

Randomly speaking

• There were anxious moments early in the third period as to the welfare of Sidney Crosby. With approximately eight seconds remaining in the second period, Crosby was struck on the left side of his head by a slap shot from teammate Kris Letang.

Crosby was hunched over in discomfort immediately after being struck and staggered to the bench where athletic trainer Chris Stewart attended to him. As the period ended and teams left the ice, Crosby was able to skate to the Penguins’ dressing room – the tunnel to the visiting dressing room is not connected to the bench at American Airlines Center – without any assistance.

He did not come to the bench for the start of the third but eventually made his way back onto the ice recording his first shift 2:47 into the period.

Crosby, who has had a well-documented history of head injuries, did not speak with reporters after the game but Sullivan offered a bit of an update on his captain.

“We’re always concerned when somebody gets hit by a shot like that, the way he did,” Sullivan said. “He was able to come back in the game. He was evaluated by the doctors. We’ll continue to evaluate him.”

• The Stars had a rough night physically too.

At 12:31 of the first period, Stars defenseman Esa Lindell slid to block a one-timer by Crosby but got it in the face. He did not finish the period but returned for the start of the second with a full face shield.

Then, at 4:17 of the second, Stars defenseman Taylor Fedun blocked wrister by Blueger with his stick. The puck rode up his stick and struck him in the face. He finished the game luckily.

The worst appeared to be Stars defenseman Andrej Sekera who crashed into the end boards of Dallas’ zone while racing Bjugstad for a puck. They were tangled up and Sekera just fell at 6:18 of the third. He required some assistance in leaving the ice.

• In his season debut, Rust logged 16:51 of ice time on 23 shifts, including 50 seconds on the power. He had one goal on one shot, two attempts and two blocked shots.

• Bjugstad, who had been sidelined for nine games due to an undisclosed injury, logged 15:08 of ice time on 20 shifts and had five shots on six attempts and one block. He was also 5 for 12 in faceoffs.

• Don’t dismiss the importance of Bjugstad as it pertains to Rust’s goal. After an icing calla gainst the Stars, the Penguins got to choose the faceoff circle in the offensive zone where Bjugstad won the faceoff in the right circle against Dowling. As the team’s only regular right-handed draw - Lafferty is also right-handed but he plays center only on sporadic occasions - Bjugstad was able to take the faceoff on his strong side and won it.

• Murray bounced back after a so-so outing against the Florida Panthers in a 4-2 road loss on Tuesday in which Murray allowed a puck to hit off his blocker, pop up and bounce off his back. He was very much the star of this game for the first two periods as he stopped several Stars chances with some flamboyant glove saves. He earned his first shutout of the season.

• The Penguins had to kill two power plays but did not get one of their own to work with.

• Kahun logged a season-low 7:57 of ice time on 12 shifts, including only four shifts in the third period. Yet, he scored his first goal. Go figure.

• The Stars were one of three teams Rust had never scored a point against. The two sole survivors for that designation are now the Colorado Avalanche and Winnipeg Jets.

Publicly speaking

• Rust admitted his legs were … ahem … rusty … at times during the contest:

“I felt good out there. It was obviously good to get one. There were a couple of shifts in the second there where I was stuck in swamp water and a little bit tired, got caught in the (defensive) zone. (Murray) kept us in there in the second and we pushed back really well in the third.”

• Kahun on his team’s rebound after the second period:

“We didn’t play hard enough. Dallas was playing better than us. They played harder than us. They were faster. We said it here in the second intermission that we had to step up and we have to win one period to win a game. And that’s what we did.”

• Sullivan was happy for Kahun:

“It’s great for Dom Kahun. We felt he was all around it for the last handful of games. He’s had a lot of chances and the puck hasn’t gone in the net for him. He gets a big one for us tonight.”

• Rust broke down his goal:

“We just got the shot of the draw and I kind of saw Bishop was over there, overextended on the short side. I just tried to beat him on the far post, I actually tried to pass to somebody out in front. It hit a skate and went in.”

• Murray was pumped for Kahun and Rust:

“It was awesome. Dom has been playing super well for us but just hasn’t been able to put one in. But he’s deserved to. And he finally got one tonight. So that was awesome to see. And (Rust) stepped in and played great and scored a huge goal for us. Both of those guys had huge nights.”

• Rust on Kahun:

“He’s been playing really well the last handful of games. He’s been getting a ton of chances and he got rolling with an ugly one. That’s the kind of things you’ve got to do when you’re in a slump.”

• Murray on his play:

“I just tried to do my job. Honestly, I just tried to make as many saves as I could. They play a hard game, they get a lot of bodies to the net and they make it difficult. Definitely wasn’t an easy game. I loved the character we showed coming out of the third. We dominated the third.”

• Sullivan spoke highly of Murray, who had criticized his own play against the Panthers:

“These guys, they take ownership for their own respective games. Nobody is harder on our guys than themselves. They have high expectations of one another. Matt has high expectations on himself. It doesn’t surprise me that he responds the way that he does. He’s a real good goalie.”

• Sullivan on how the game flowed:

“We felt like we had one bad period, the second period. There wasn’t a lot of ice out there. The shot (total) was a little deceiving. Based on our calculations, the scoring chances were three to three. It wasn’t our best period but it certainly wasn’t our worst. I didn’t think we won a lot of puck battles in the second period. We had a discussion about that in between periods. Our guys responded well.”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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