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Penguins turn to youth in shootout win against Sharks | TribLIVE.com
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Penguins/NHL

Penguins turn to youth in shootout win against Sharks

Seth Rorabaugh
Seth Rorabaugh
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The Penguins’ Bryan Rust (second from right) celebrates his goal with Evgeni Malkin (71), Jack St. Ivany (3) and Michael Bunting during the first period Saturday.
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The Penguins’ Drew O’Connor works against Sharks goaltender Vitek Vanecek during the first period Saturday.
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The Penguins’ Sidney Crosby (right) celebrates with Erik Karlsson after scoring during the second period Saturday.
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The Penguins’ Bryan Rust (right) gets a backhand shot between the pads of Sharks goaltender Vitek Vanecek for a goal during the first period Saturday.

Mike Sullivan professes a base consideration when he crafts each and every lineup he writes out as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“Which guy gives us the best chance to win,” Sullivan said as recently as Nov. 10. “That is what pro sports is all about. Performance is always going to be the dictator.”

On Saturday, veteran defenseman Ryan Graves — two years into a six-year contract with a salary cap hit of $4.5 million — and reserve winger Valtteri Puustinen were not included in the team’s lineup, based on lackluster performances as of late.

Rookie defenseman Owen Pickering — a first-round draft pick (No. 21 overall) in 2022 — and forward Vasily Ponomarev were deemed worthy of being components of that group and helped the team claim a badly needed — albeit flawed — 4-3 victory against the San Jose Sharks at PPG Paints Arena. The triumph – against one of the NHL’s weakest teams — snapped a three-game losing streak (0-2-1).

Shootout goals by Penguins forwards Sidney Crosby, Anthony Beauvillier and Evgeni Malkin secured victory.

Pickering and Ponomarev were each recalled to the NHL roster in recent days (following the promotion of rookie forward Sam Poulin on Monday). Pickering made his NHL debut while Ponomarev, acquired in a major trade that sent All-Star forward Jake Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes on March 7, made his Penguins debut (and appeared in his third career NHL contest).

With All-Star defenseman Kris Letang also scratched for the second consecutive game due to illness, Pickering opened the contest in Graves’ typical station on the left side of the third pairing with Ryan Shea on the starboard side.

“It was a lot of fun out there today, and to get the win was big,” Pickering said. “It was nerve-wracking in the shootout, but it was fun.”

Ponomarev, typically utilized as a center, began play on the right wing of the fourth line next to veterans Noel Acciari at center and Matt Nieto on the left wing.

“Just being here, I can’t explain it because it’s not like even in your dreams,” Ponomarev said. “It’s like somewhere you are probably a couple of levels higher than just enjoying it. You’re learning, you’re enjoying being here and you’re putting higher than 100% into your work.”

The Penguins didn’t exactly put 100% into their defensive effort in this contest. They surrendered a three-goal lead before winning it in the shootout.

“Obviously, we would have liked to have (held) that lead better and not go to a shootout,” Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. “But overall, we dug in. In the overtime, we were great. And obviously, it was nice to win.”

Rust offered a nice effort to open the scoring 61 seconds into regulation with his fifth goal of the season.

From near the left wall of the offensive zone, Penguins forward Michael Bunting rimmed the puck along the boards, allowing Rust to claim possession behind the cage. Considering his options for a moment, Rust surged to the right of the cage and jammed a backhander through goaltender Vitek Vanecek’s five hole. Bunting and Malkin had assists.

Malkin utilized a dazzling backhander on a would-be goal at 5:42 of the first period but the Sharks issued a coach’s challenge on the suspicions of the sequence being offside. The officials verified those claims and euthanized the score.

Only 52 seconds later, Penguins forward Jesse Puljujarvi scored a valid goal, his second of the campaign.

Settling a puck at the left point of the offensive zone, Pickering fed a cross-ice pass to the right circle for Penguins forward Drew O’Connor, who snapped a wrister toward the cage. As Poulin crashed the crease, Vanecek booted out the puck with his right skate but allowed a rebound to bounce to below the left circle where Puljujarvi leaned down and swatted a forehand shot into a mostly vacant cage. O’Connor and Pickering picked up assists.

Vanecek did not complete the contest and was replaced at the start of the second period by backup Mackenzie Blackwood. There was no immediate word on Vanecek’s status.

Crosby scored his team-leading seventh goal — the 599th of his career — at 4:19 into the second period with a slapper from the right point of the offensive zone, something of a rarity for him.

After Crosby whacked a slapper from above the right circle, Blackwood fought off the shot, sending the rebound to the end boards. The puck rimmed around the near corner to the right wall and Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson fended off Sharks forward Klim Kostin and shuffled a backhand pass to Crosby at the right point. Surveying for a shooting lane, Crosby wound up and fired a slapper through a phalanx of bodies and by Blackwood’s blocker on the far side. Karlsson and Beauvillier accrued assists.

The Sharks got on the scoreboard at 12:05 of the second frame when forward Tyler Toffoli tallied his seventh goal during a power-play sequence.

Racing into the offensive zone on the left wing, Sharks rookie forward Macklin Celebrini, the top overall selection in this year’s NHL Draft, forced a centering pass that was broken up in the left circle by a poke check from Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea. The puck caromed to the top of the circle where Sharks rookie forward Will Smith leaned to one knee and one-touched a pass to the right of the cage for Toffoli, who went forehand to backhand and tucked in a shot by scrambling goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic. The only assist went to Smith.

Ex-Penguins forward Mikael Granlund’s eighth goal came at 6:56 of the third period.

Entering the offensive zone on the left wing, Sharks forward Fabian Zetterlund pulled up on the half-wall and forced a centering pass. Beauvillier made a furious effort to break up the sequence with a diving poke check but inadvertently deflected the puck below the right circle where Granlund swept in a one-timer by Nedeljkovic’s glove on the near side. Zetterlund and forward William Eklund extracted assists.

That was followed by Toffoli striking again at 11:40 of the same frame.

As Penguins rookie defenseman Jack St. Ivany stumbled, Sharks forward Ty Dellandrea pushed the puck deep into the Penguins’ zone on the left wing and fed a centering pass to the left hashmarks for Toffoli, who put a wrister behind Nedeljkovic’s blocker on the near side. Dellandrea and defenseman Jake Walman had assists.

In the shootout, Nedeljkovic allowed goals to Granlund and Eklund but denied Celebrini, Smith and forward Alexander Wennberg. In regulation and overtime, Nedeljkovic stopped 26 of 29 shots in regulation and overtime and his record improved to 3-3-3.

Blackwood denied Penguins forwards Rickard Rakell and Rust.

“We stuck with it,” Nedeljkovic said. “That’s been a big point of emphasis lately, just staying with it, whether we were coming back from a couple-goal lead or tonight we gave up a two-goal lead. We’re going through some adversity right now and trying to find ways to get out of it. It was nice to get rewarded tonight.”

That reward was acquired, in part, by what was deemed to be the Penguins’ best possible lineup.

“We felt it was time to make those changes and give guys opportunities to play,” Sullivan said following the game. “We’re not satisfied with where we’re at, and performance matters. We’re going to give guys opportunities to play. If they can make an impact and they can help our team win, they’re going to play.”

Notes:

• Pickering logged 13:40 of ice time on 21 shifts, including 2:25 on the penalty kill. He recorded one shot attempt and blocked one shot.

• Ponomarev logged 8:40 of ice time on 11 shifts and had three shots on two attempts. He also recorded one penalty for two minutes.

• Ponomarev is the 29th player to wear No. 11 for the Penguins. His predecessors (via PittsburghHockey.net):

Gene Ubriaco, Tracy Pratt, Nick Harbaruk, Bemie Lukowich, Vic Hadfield, John Flesch, Tom Cassidy, George Ferguson, Anders Hakansson, Rocky Saganiuk, Tim Tookey, Troy Loney, Dwight Mathiasen, Lee Giffin, Alain Lemieux, Warren Young, John Cullen, Alek Stojanov, Shawn Antoski, Darius Kasparaitis, Alexandre Daigle, Lasse Pirjeta, Guillaume Lefebvre, Jordan Staal, Kevin Porter, Frederick Gaudreau, Brian Boyle, Alex Nylander

• Pickering is the 12th player to wear No. 38 for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Scott Gruhl, Jiri Hrdina, Peter Allen, Andreas Johanson, Jan Hrdina, Jeff Taffe, Mark Letestu, Nick Johnson, Colin McDonald, Zach Sill, Derek Grant

• Beauvillier had a three-game goal-scoring streak snapped, but he extended a point-scoring streak to four games (three goals, two assists).

• In 13 career games against the Sharks, Rust has 16 points (eight goals, eight assists).

• Attendance was listed as 18,194. It was the Penguins’ third shutout of the season. THey previous sold out contests against the New York Rangers (18,190 on Oct. 9) and the Minnesota Wild (18,195 on Oct. 29).

Seated capacity for hockey at PPG Paints Arena is 18,187.

• Sullivan spoke to the significance of working against Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky, a family friend who is in his first season as an NHL head coach.

“It’s terrific from my standpoint,” Sullivan said. “I’m so proud of him in what he’s accomplished to get to where he is. He’s a great young coach. He’s a really enthusiastic learner and I couldn’t be more thrilled for him. He’s deserving of the opportunities that he’s been given. He’s doing a great job with that team. … He’s put the work in and the time in to hone the craft. He has coached at so many levels along the way to build a certain experience level that’s helping him. … My parents are his godparents so his family is very close with my family. I consider him family. To watch him do what he does right now is certainly a proud moment for all of us. … I didn’t root for him tonight but every other night I root for him.”

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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