Penguins find ample secondary scoring in win against Golden Knights

Jeff Carter has 413 career goals. That’s a figure worthy of a plaque in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

So he knows how to score. He is also intimately familiar with how difficult it can be to score.

He, like a lot of his teammates who are expected to provide secondary scoring for the Penguins, hasn’t had a great deal of success in that pursuit as of late.

Before Friday, the veteran forward had gone 10 games without a goal.

“I’ve been through many slumps in my career,” Carter said. “When you’re in them, you just have to simplify. There’s really nothing else to it. You shoot pucks. You go to the net. You score goals in the weirdest way when you’re at the net. It’s going to go off your (backside), off your shin pad, off your skate. You can’t try to skill your way out of it. Playing as direct as you can and just simplifying your game, if you continue with that and you’re working hard, eventually, it’s going to come.”

Goals came from the likes of Carter and other supplemental sources on Friday in the Penguins’ 5-2 home win against the Vegas Golden Knights at PPG Paints Arena.

In addition to Carter, defensemen Mark Friedman and Mike Matheson and forward Evan Rodrigues contributed offense while sturdy first-liner Bryan Rust also found the net.

“The fact that we got some contributions tonight throughout our lineup, I think it just speaks volumes for what we’re capable of and the type of team that we can become,” coach Mike Sullivan boasted. “It’s a real good example of the type of team that we’re trying to build here and what the expectations are throughout our lineup. That’s just the essence of being a team.”

That essence was diluted a bit by the loss of forward Brock McGinn, who suffered an apparent injury to his right arm or hand. Sullivan labeled the hard-scrabble bottom-six forward as “week-to-week” following the game.

The loss of McGinn came with the return of Matheson, who had missed five games due to an undisclosed injury. He opened the scoring 18:54 into regulation.

Gaining the offensive zone on the right wing, Rust left a drop pass for linemate Sidney Crosby, who veered to the top of the right circle. Hesitating for a moment, Crosby allowed the play to develop then fed a pass to the top of the right circle for the onrushing Matheson, who ripped a far-side wrister past goaltender Laurent Brossoit’s glove for his eighth goal of the season, most among the team’s defensemen. Crosby and Rust had assists.

It became a 2-0 lead 2:36 into the second period. Settling a puck at his own blue line, Penguins forward Valtteri Puustinen, making his NHL debut, sprung McGinn on a breakaway with a forehand pass toward the center red line. Attacking the net, McGinn had a forehand shot denied by Brossoit. The ensuing rebound trickled loose in between Brossoit’s skates and was jabbed into the cage by the diligent Carter for his 14th goal. McGinn and Puustinen registered assists.

The Golden Knights responded at the 4:19 mark of the middle frame. From his own blue line, defenseman Dylan Coughlan banked the puck off the right wing boards and provided an entry for forward Max Pacioretty, who got behind Matheson, chased down the puck and backhand chopped it towards the front of the crease.

The puck glanced off of goaltender Tristan Jarry’s stick then Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson’s left skate as Golden Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault barged in, knocking down Pettersson. Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel followed up on the sequence and swiped a forehand shot from the slot past Jarry’s glove for his fourth goal. Marchessault and Pacioretty netted assists.

Things were tied, 2-2, at 8:19 of the second. As a four-on-four sequence expired, Golden Knights forward Chandler Stephenson gained the offensive zone at center point then fed a pass above the left circle for Marchessault. Allowing things to open up, Marchessault fed a pass to the slot for defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, whom Crosby was late in pursuing. Facing little resistance, Pietrangelo roofed a wrister over Jarry’s glove for his eighth goal. Assists went to Marchessault and Stephenson.

The Penguins reclaimed a lead, 3-2, 3:49 into the third period thanks to an unlikely source in Friedman. Gaining the offensive zone on the left wing, Penguins forward Brian Boyle glided to the high slot and dished a backhand pass to an advancing Friedman. From the right circle, Friedman gripped and ripped a wrister past Brossoit’s blocker on the far side for his first goal of the season and third of his career. Boyle and Carter were credited with assists.

“I just jumped up,” Friedman said. “(Boyle) saw me, made a great pass. I was pretty relieved to see it go in the net.”

The Golden Knights had two optimal opportunities to tie the game with power-play opportunities that began at 7:43 and 10:59 of the third period but were limited to three shots by the Penguins’ penalty killers during those four minutes.

“The penalty kill got us some momentum,” Sullivan said. “They did a terrific job. That’s one of the better games that we’ve had from a penalty kill standpoint. Just collective effort, good pressure. It really was a boost for our team in the third period.”

That boost manifested itself into a power-play goal at 14:49 of the final frame that all but secured victory. Taking a pass deep on the left wing, Crosby forced a pass to the slot that Golden Knights Nicolas Hague broke up only to inadvertently tap it to Penguins forward Jake Guentzel. From between the hash marks, Guentzel swept the puck to the right of the cage for Rust, who fanned on his initial shot but buried his second effort.

Rust reached the 20-goal mark for the third consecutive season while Guentzel logged the only assist.

Rodrigues, who had been limited to one goal in his previous 25 games, collected his 17th of the season on an empty net at 17:43 of the third. Defenseman Kris Letang had the lone assist.

Jarry made 40 saves on 42 shots as his record was elevated to 28-12-6.

The Penguins as a whole were elevated by a much-needed influx of secondary scoring Friday.

“We definitely don’t want to rely on one line, right?” Carter said. “We need everybody to chip in. That’s no secret. It’s something that we’ve been working on and trying to find some chemistry, continuity with our bottom-six (forwards).

“It’s something that we’ve got to keep going with. Tonight was a good step for us.”

Notes:

• Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin was scratched due to an illness not related to covid-19. Sullivan indicated he would be evaluated Saturday.

• Primarily deployed on the third line, Puustinen logged 10:14 of ice time on 14 shifts and registered one shot off three attempts.

• Puustinen became the second player to wear No. 76 for the Penguins. Forward Richard Park was the first.

• Puustinen (seventh round, No. 203 overall) became the first member of the Penguins’ 2019 draft class to play an NHL game.

• For warmups, Puustinen performed the customary “rookie lap” in honor of his NHL debut:

Valtteri Puustinen gets the new guy treatment: pic.twitter.com/ULv4rQSLZT

— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) March 11, 2022

• Forwards Kasperi Kapanen and Dominik Simon were healthy scratches. Kapanen has gone 17 games without a goal.

• The Golden Knights are one of three active NHL franchises the Penguins have never shut out. The others are the Minnesota Wild and Seattle Kraken.