Penguins' 4th line of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton call-ups leads team to win over Wild
Joseph Blandisi, Adam Johnson and Sam Lafferty began the week on an AHL payroll.
They ended it on an NHL scoresheet.
Playing on the fourth line, three forwards, recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton over the past several days, each scored goals and helped the Penguins outscore the Minnesota Wild in a slightly too-close-for-comfort 7-4 win at Xcel Energy Center.
“The fourth line, in general, they played minutes for us tonight,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “And we’re going to need that moving forward. And they earned the minutes through their performance. They were sound defensively. They made good decisions. And when you look at those three players, they can all really skate. That’s a fast line. We can put pucks into spaces and allow them to get in foot races and that’s where those guys thrive.”
For a team dealing with considerable absences among their incumbent NHL forwards, their contributions helped lift the Penguins’ offense which had been limited to only three goals – all from or assisted on by captain Sidney Crosby – over the previous two games.
Of course, the Penguins won’t ever decline offensive offerings from Crosby. He set up the team’s opening goal on a power play by dealing a pass from the left circle to the right circle where defenseman Justin Schultz directed a shot/pass to the slot for power forward Patric Hornqvist to tap behind goaltender Devan Dubnyk.
Crosby scored on a breakaway at 3:26 of the second period but the Wild responded only 28 seconds later with a power-play goal by forward Jason Zucker. A potential tying goal by forward Marcus Foligno at the 4:28 mark was waved off after officials determined goaltender Matt Murray had frozen the puck before Foligno shot it.
Johnson, of Hibbing, Minn., scored his first career goal at 11:11 of the second period by cleaning up a rebound off a shot by Lafferty. A party of an estimated 20 to 30 family and friends roared with the intensity of nearly 100 to celebrate Johnson’s milestone.
A lot of people made the trek down,” Johnson said. “I’m sure it was them making a lot of noise.”
Defenseman Kris Letang scored at the 12:58 mark of the second to make it a 4-1 contest. Only 41 seconds later, Blandisi, recalled on Friday, scored his first goal with the Penguins off assists from Johnson and Lafferty. Dubnyk was replaced by backup Alex Stalock after that goal.
The Wild started to claw its way back into the contest with a goal by defenseman Jared Spurgeon at 16:46 of the second.
Penguins forward Jake Guentzel added a power-play score at 10:48 of the third period to make it a 6-2 contest. Minnesota began to make things interesting with nearly simultaneous scores by defenseman Brad Hunt (15:23) and forward Luke Kunin (15:44).
Late in the contest, the Wild pulled Stalock for an extra attacker but allowed Lafferty, of Hollidaysburg, to collect the empty-net score, the first of his career.
“I was kind of surprised,” Lafferty said. “I looked up and I had a clear lane and I decided to take it.”
The milestones weren’t limited to the goal scorers. Murray recorded his 100th career victory.
“It’s really cool,” said an emotional Murray. “It’s really humbling. If you told me as a kid that I’d have a hundred wins in the NHL, I’d be thrilled.”
Blandisi, Johnson and Lafferty seem pretty thrilled over being on the NHL roster. After practice in Cranberry on Friday, Sullivan was asked if he guides “the AHL guys” any differently than the veterans.
“For me, they’re not AHL guys,” said Sullivan. “They’re Pittsburgh Penguins.”
On Saturday, they validated that label.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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