Before Saturday’s game at the PPG Paints Arena, the Pittsburgh Penguins went out on the ice in droves to celebrate their captain.
The 20 players who officially dressed for the competition surrounded Sidney Crosby. The same happened with the healthy, like defender Chad Ruhwedel and striker Colton Sceviour and even the injured on the reserve, including striker Jared McCann and defender Juuso Riikola, entered the ice in full uniform.
After all, it was time to honor the pillar of the franchise on the occasion of the thousandth game of his career.
Crosby held up a ceremonial silver staff and took a handful of pictures with his teammates at the east end of the PPG Paints Arena.
It was a profound moment for anyone interested in the Penguins.
It may also have been the most cohesive demonstration of teamwork that the Penguins offered before the start of the third period.
Shaking off a slow effort during the first 40 minutes of regulation, the Penguins managed to recover in the third period and beat the New York Islanders 3-2.
It was the fifth time this season that the Penguins have recovered from a deficit in the final stage to claim victory.
“Even if we don’t have our A-game or one of those nights off, we can still fight to win and get some points in the standings,” said Penguins defender Kris Letang. “This team never gives up. It doesn’t matter. We continue to work hard.”
Despite having been poorly overcome in most of the game – the Islanders ended up with a 35-18 lead on that metric – the Penguins managed to stay in the contest thanks to another great effort by goalkeeper Tristan Jarry, who ended up with 33 saves.
In the last four games, Jarry has stopped 131 of 140 shots, which equates to a defending percentage of 0.935.
“I mean, Tristan won that game for sure,” said Penguins defender Mike Matheson. “After the second half… we had no reason to be in that game. We didn’t play the way we should or needed to be with a team like the Islanders. But he kept us in it, and he did it during the third period as well. ”
The Penguins got the first advantage at 12:35 in the second period, thanks to Letang making his first goal of the season in a power-play.
But a turnaround in the offensive zone between Penguins strikers Evgeni Malkin and Jason Zucker led the Islanders to draw 1-1, less than three minutes later. After the turn, Islanders striker Jordan Eberle had a great run on the right wing and scored his seventh goal at 15:28.
Just 53 seconds into the third, another Zucker spin, this time in the defensive zone, led Islanders striker Brock Nelson to claim his fifth goal with a high-ranking wrister.
It took a determined effort by Matheson to forge a tie at 7:35 am on the third. Skating with a puck out of danger from his own zone – behind his own net, specifically – Matheson allowed striker Teddy Blueger to win the offensive zone, then distributed a pass from the right corner to the right circle back to Matheson , who wrested a wrister from goalkeeper Blocker Semyon Varlamov on the opposite side for his first goal since joining the Penguins last season.
The Penguins definitely took the lead at 13:34 on the third. After Penguins strikers Jake Guentzel and Brandon Tanev won a puck battle on the final plates of the Islanders, Crosby gave a close pass from the left corner to the left point for Letang, who inspected a course of fire and launched a wrister passing the Varlamov blocker.
The victory was important, as it put the Penguins ahead of the Islanders for fourth place in the East Division.
But this triumph seemed to mean more to his captain.
“It means a lot,” said Crosby. “It is a special day regardless of the result. But it gets much better when you win. Everything from the guys, the ceremony in the room (e) on the ice. Completely spoiled today. It was an incredible experience. A day that I will always remember and even sweeter that we were able to win. ”
Seth Rorabaugh is a staff writer for the Tribune-Review. You can contact Seth by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .
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